If you're a comic book fan or merely someone who has paid a minimal amount of attention to the summer blockbuster schedule, you know that Marvel's X-Men universe has maintained its mostly steady film franchise for 17 years now. But the time may finally soon come for the mutant heroes (and their foes) to take over the small screen for some live-action adventures, as Fox CEO and Chairman Gary Newman delivered an incredibly positive update at this year's TCA concerning the network's in-development X-Men series from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix.
We're deep into development on that.. We're expecting a script shortly. The materials we've seen so far have been very, very promising. Development across the board this year is a little slower than usual, so we're not, unfortunately, ready to make an announcement about it, but we're very encouraged.
That's seemingly as optimistic as news could possibly get from Fox's head honcho, and though we know that higher-up execs aren't always the most dependable when it comes to updates on series, he's not just spouting generalizations. Speaking about the comic-related project at TCA (via IGN), Gary Newman even made it sound like things would really ramp up behind the scenes if it moves forward, saying not only is everyone interested in getting the X-Men show into the 2017-2018 TV season, but also that it's actually possible.
Beyond his general announcement, Fox's Gary Newman told Deadline that he's expecting a pilot for the X-Men project to be picked up in the next week or two. If that happens, then Fox could easily grant the mutant-friendly drama a spot in the fall lineup. Hopefully one of the show's main characters has a power that can convince network execs to order pilots to series, as that could come in handy.
One would hope that the development situation is a "deep" on by now, too, since Fox first put the wheels in motion on its X-Men project over the summer. That announcement ran parallel to Fox halting progress on the planned Hellfire series, also from Marvel, which would have had looser ties to the X-Men. Still no details have been released as far as what the show will actually be about, but it will indeed tie into the currently existing film franchise in some presumably hyper-complicated way.
Hopefully we'll get word on the X-Men show moving forward in that aforementioned week-or-two window, and hopefully that pilot order will come with a somewhat detailed synopsis for us to completely pick apart. Until that happens though, head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what Fox will debut soon, as well as when that other X-Men-related show Legion will begin.
