Exclusive: X-Men's Hellfire Club missed out on spin-off movie

The Hellfire Club from the X-Men comics almost had their own movie, according to X-Men: First Class producer Lauren Schuler Donner.

Talking about their inclusion in X-Men: First Class , she revealed: “Bryan wanted to bring another element into it. I had always wanted to do the Hellfire Club because they're really fascinating. I almost wanted to spin them off into another movie. So I mentioned the Hellfire Club to him and he grabbed and said, 'That is a great idea.'”

A movie based around some of the best comic-book supervillains sounds like a corking idea to TF, so what was the hold up?

“It didn't get to script,” Donner told TotalFilm.com. “It got to formulating who we would use and which story we would use because there's the whole Jean Grey part of the Hellfire story.”

Which would Donner have plumped for, given the option?

“I like the whole Jean Grey involvement. I thought that was really interesting,” she revealed.

X-Men: First Class is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 9 September in the US and 31 October in the UK.