We’re Getting an X-MEN TV Show!!… Maybe


x-men jim lee

A few years ago when Fox decided to up their game with the X-Men franchise and take it a little more seriously, fans rejoiced and wondered when they would decide to conquer the next medium: television. Everybody and their mother is making comic book shows nowadays, so why not make one about mutants? There’s an absolute ton of stories and characters to explore so you’d think one would be shoved into production right away, however it’s a little more complicated than that.

Rather than owning the live-action rights to the characters, Fox has the movie rights – i.e. they can’t produce a live-action show without Marvel’s permission, which is exactly what seems to be happening. Speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour, Fox television group chairman (so wordy) said,

“[For] X-Men, we’re in negotiations with Marvel. We’re hopeful we’ll be able to announce something soon. We’re not closed on a deal yet but it’s something we’re definitely pursuing.”

“The characters from the X-Men franchise are with Fox on the feature side so we won’t be including Marvel characters that are at ABC with Disney. This will be exclusively the franchise as it has existed at Fox.”

Basically, it’s nowhere near a done deal. It could happen but don’t place your bets just yet, although I’m really rooting for it. Back in the day I thought the X-Men movies were dull and stupid; then the Marvel Cinematic Universe came along and I disregarded them altogether. However, First Class was brilliant, as was Days of Future Past, so there’s a lot of revitalised interest in this franchise, not just from me but from tons of fans. A TV series? Hell yeah.

Not QUITE live-action enough.

Not QUITE live-action enough.

The real question is – what will it be about? Admittedly my knowledge of the comics is limited, but there are several different paths to go down. New Mutants? X-Force? Okay, I’m just throwing out names. The project has had writers attached for a while, so Fox at least know what they want to do. Star Trek Beyond‘s Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne will write and 24‘s Evan Katz and Manny Coto will be the showrunners. Neither Marvel or Disney have the best of relationships with Fox and it’s entirely up to them whether this thing goes forward. They make sure not to produce any merchandise or promote their films in any way and a TV show could do a lot of good for them. It’s possible they may just say no and that’s that. We’ll see.

….but it WOULD be awesome.

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