According to TV Insider, Fox is currently pushing forward with a live-action X-Men TV series. The network is hoping to shepherd the adaptation to the small screen with the help of 24 producers Evan Katz and Manny Coto and Star Trek 3 scribes Patrick McKay and JD Payne.
Fox’s intentions are to adapt both the comic book series AND the movie versions, transforming those two strands of the X-Men property into a serial. Granted, it’s an exciting prospect – especially with the torrent of successful Marvel small screen adaps flooding the market – but one that comes with its fair share of baggage.
Alas, the path to television victory for this adaptation begins where most trouble brews – the rights department. While Fox’s studio arm, 20th Century Fox, has produced seven X-Men features thus far, if it wishes to create a TV series, it requires the thumbs up from the folks who birthed the X-Men: Marvel. As they are owned by Disney, which has produced a plethora of Marvel series for ABC, you can imagine where difficulties may arise.
Still, Fox’s Entertainment Chairman Gary Newman doesn’t seem too flustered by that prospect. “It’s in negotiations,” he said. “We’re cautiously optimistic, we had a good meeting with them. That will not be on a fast track creatively. This is just the deal, now we have to find the creative.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard talk of a home invasion by the mutants. The superhero crew’s small screen takeover was briefly mentioned last year by X-scribe Simon Kinberg, and later in a rumoured report by Bleeding Cool. The latter posited that the series was already “deep in development” in October. That was then followed two days later by talk of characters who might even be populating the spinoff!
Currently, that latter rumor has yet to be confirmed or further supplemented with chatter about other characters who may return. In fact, we know nothing about the era, storylines or X-Men characters who are expected to crop up. Could it link in to the feature film franchise, or will it be a standalone spin-off?
Let us know what you’d prefer to see in the comments below!