Plans for a small screen X-Men universe started last year when Fox and FX announced a double-whammy of mutant series in the works. Despite some enthusiastic comments from executive producer Bryan Singer, Hellfire has since been canned. The other show, Legion, stars Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens and is very much in production with Fargo's Noah Hawley at the helm. Still, Fox remains keen to make an even bigger mark on superhero television as the network has confirmed it's now developing another X-Men show.
This as-yet untitled series will follow “two ordinary parents who discover their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive.” Approaching it from the angle of mutant parents is one way to inject a bit of freshness into the material. That could be down to the work of X-franchise newcomer, Matt Nix (Burn Notice) who's writing the script.
As for the rest of the players involved, 20th Century Fox TV and Marvel TV will co-produce the series that has plenty of familiar X-Men creatives attached. Singer is executive producing alongside Simon Kinberg and Lauren Shuler Donner. All three are connected to the main X-Men movies while the latter pair worked on Deadpool. That's an impressive group before you throw in the two folks from Marvel's side; Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory, who both produced Daredevil and Jessica Jones.
Going on their previous work, we could be in for a pretty decent dip into the X-Men world with this bunch. It might even make up for the somewhat mediocre Apocalypse. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves. The show has only received an order for a pilot episode so far.
Images: Fox
