Fox will soon be home to both DC and Marvel superheroes. The network already delivers tales of young Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon in Gotham, and now it”s ordered a pilot for a new Marvel action-adventure series.
Here”s how a Marvel press release described the still somewhat mysterious project:
“The Untitled Fox Marvel Project will focus on 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.”
Variety broke the news, also reporting that the Hellfire Club series (which previously looked to be Fox”s first Marvel TV project) is no longer in development.
Executive producing this untitled series are Bryan Singer, Lauren Schuler Donner, and Simon Kinberg – who all have several X-Men credits – along with Marvel Television EVP Jeph Loeb. Matt Nix (Burn Notice) will write the pilot script and also produce.
“Developing a Marvel property has been a top priority for the network – and we are so pleased with how Matt Nix has led us into this thrilling universe,” said David Madden, President, Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company in the press release.
Obvious assumption: This show”s about mutants from the X-Men world, already under the 20th Century Fox umbrella. It could be that Fox changed course on New Mutants and is now giving those guys a TV show instead of a movie. Could be X-Force. Or perhaps entirely new characters that exist in the X-Men world. Alongside FX”s in-development Legion project, it looks like television is where Fox/Marvel can take some risks, while the X-Men movies will stick with the safe and proven fan favorites in the lead.
Unlike the dropped Hellfire series, you can pretty much count on seeing this project air on Fox. It got a put pilot commitment, meaning that even if it“s not picked up to series, the pilot will air as a special (or Fox will owe monetary penalties to the producers).