Earlier this year, Fox announced that it was interested in bringing the X-Men franchise to television. Fox entertainment chairman Gary Newman said at the time that he was “cautiously optimistic” about the deal with Marvel, but that it would still be a while before the studio turned its focus to the creative side of things.
On Thursday, our interest was reignited when Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden told The Hollywood Reporter that an agreement might be right around the corner.
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“[For] X-Men, we’re in negotiations with Marvel,” said Walden. “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.”
Alright… so that’s not quite as definitive a statement as we would have liked to hear, but after the success of Daredevil and the resurgence of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in its second season, Marvel’s confidence in adapting comic books to serialized TV series has to be at an all-time high. That’s not to say Marvel Studios would be involved creatively, but the executives must see the potential.
“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,” Walden clarified. “This will be exclusively the franchise as it has existed at Fox.”
In other words, the X-Men aren’t entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe any time soon, regardless of whether or not Fox and Marvel can reach an agreement. Still, with Star Trek Beyond writers Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne signed on to write the show and 24’s Evan Katz and Manny Coto serving as showrunners, I’m just intrigued to see how it turns out.
