Michael Egan, the man who claimed he was sexually abused by the X-Men film director Bryan Singer, has dropped his legal action against the filmmaer. A judge in Honolulu granted Egan's petition to have the case dismissed without prejudice, allowing him to re-file at a later date.

Bryan SingerBryan Singer will no doubt be relieved at Michael Egan has dropped his case after an exhaustive year [Getty/Charley Gallay]

This was against the wishes of Singer, who requested to have the case dismissed with prejudice and to make Egan pay his legal costs.

"We're pleased that it's over," said Singer's lawyer Marty Singer, "Although we would have liked the case dismissed on merits, the fact that now it's dropped... is satisfactory."

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A former child model, Egan, now 31, had accused the 48-year-old filmmaker of abusing him in Hawaii when he was 17. He filed three similar legal suits against other Hollywood figures - executives Gary Goddard, David Neuman and Garth Ancier - but they were dismissed.

Jeff HermanMichael Egan's former lawyer Jeff Herman had announced the case in a media press conference [Getty/Valerie Macon]

It wraps months of legal wrangling initially publicised by Egan's former attorney Jeff Herman, who along with fellow lawyer Mark Gallagher, resigned from the case last month.

US district judge Susan Oki Mollway said that "any alleged damage to [Singer's] reputation may well be ameliorated by plaintiff's voluntary dismissal of the action."

Though Egan may well re-file (though it's unlikely), Bryan Singer is now seemingly free to focus on his big upcoming directorial project, X-Men: Apocalypse. The movie set for May 27, 2016, is to star Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and Channing Tatum.

More: read our 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' review