Back in October, director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) reportedly signed on to direct Hugh Jackman (Real Steel) in the forthcoming Wolverine movie. Since then, Aronofsky has referred to the movie as a “one-off,” and emphasized that the film isn’t a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine in any conventional sense, and confirmed that the official title for the film would be, The Wolverine.

Now, Deadline reports that Aronofsky abandoned the director’s chair of 20th Century Fox‘s film. There are plenty of rumors making their way around the web for his departure. The most plausible being that he wasn’t fond of the studio meddling in his film, which Fox is notorious for (especially with the X-Films). One of the other reasons could be his recent divorce from Rachel Weisz and issues about the custody of their son.

Below you can read Aronofsky’s official statement about his departure..

“As I talked more about the film with my collaborators at Fox, it became clear that the production of The Wolverine would keep me out of the country for almost a year. I was not comfortable being away from my family for that length of time. I am sad that I won’t be able to see the project through, as it is a terrific script and I was very much looking forward to working with my friend, Hugh Jackman, again.”

20th Century Fox also issued a statement about the director’s departure.

“While we are of course disappointed that Darren can’t do The Wolverine, we also understand and respect his reasons. Having done both The Wrestler and Black Swan with Darren, we know he is an extraordinary talent and we look forward to working with him on other projects in the future. Hugh Jackman and Fox both remain fully committed to making The Wolverine. We will regroup and move forward aggressively.”

While The Wolverine was supposed to begin production in April, it would have likely been delayed due to the crisis in Japan, and now they have to sign a new director for the project.

The Wolverine is slated to hit theaters in 2012.