The Alleged Gun Threat Behind the Omen II Director’s Exit

Scandals & Feuds5/5 wildness

The Alleged Gun Threat Behind the Omen II Director’s Exit

Mike Hodges and Harvey Bernhard / 1970s

Mike Hodges later offered a much more explosive account of his departure from Damien – Omen II. In interviews, he maintained that he left of his own accord rather than simply being fired over scheduling problems, and claimed that producer Harvey Bernhard produced a gun during an argument concerning the film’s design budget. Bernhard’s publicly cited explanation focused instead on Hodges’s slow working methods and the production’s mounting schedule pressure, leaving the two accounts in direct conflict. The change in directors also altered the film creatively: Don Taylor reshot scenes and added the climactic twist that Ann Thorn was secretly devoted to Damien and would murder Richard. Lance Henriksen, whose role was substantially reduced by Taylor’s revisions, reportedly expressed frustration that much of his character development disappeared. The gun allegation is preserved as Hodges’s later recollection rather than independently established fact, making it one of the production’s most disturbing but least conclusively documented episodes.