Marvel’s television world is about to get one show bigger.
Fox has committed to a pilot about Marvel’s popular mutant heroes and villains: the X-Men. From writer Matt Nix, known for his work on shows like Burn Notice and The Comedians, the untitled series will follow a family who discovers their son is a mutant and must go on the run, eventually joining up with a underground team of other mutants.
Nix will also serve as an executive producer on the series, alongside Bryan Singer, Lauren Shuler Donner, Simon Kinberg, as well as Marvel’s Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory. 20th Century Fox TV and Marvel Television are set to co-produce.
David Madden, president, entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company said that “developing a Marvel property has been a top priority for the network,” but you might remember this is not the first attempted collaboration by Marvel and Fox.
Fox, which also boasts comic-based shows Gotham and Lucifer, once had the series Hellfire in development, which would have chronicled the society that often came into conflict with the X-Men in Marvel comics. However, that project is no longer on the slate.
This also isn’t the only X-Men TV series currently on the table. FX’s Legion is in production right now, with Dan Stevens as the mutant character David Haller.
For better or worse, Marvel’s X-Men have struggled on the big screen, mostly critically, but occasionally financially (just take a look at X-Men: Apocalypse, which only made $154.5 million and dropped significantly throughout its run). There are numerous reasons for this, one of the most prominent being that the X-Men are some of Marvel’s longest-running and most complicated characters, with convoluted histories and striking social commentary. They don’t always seem fit for film, but they might work better when adapted to television’s long-form storytelling.
Marvel’s television seems to get bigger every day. Across network, cable, and streaming channels, they have Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil, and Jessica Jones, with Luke Cage, Legion, and Cloak and Dagger all in development.
Nix is repped by WME and UFUSE Management.
Singer is repped by WME Entertainment.
Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor
This news was first reported by Variety.
