Fox Orders Pilot of Marvel X-Men Based TV Series

Marvel TV and 20th Century Fox will team up for a new X-Men based pilot on FOX. The series, untitled and without any specific characters mentioned in the announcement, will be an "action-adventure" with two human parents whose child develops 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," the press release reads.

The series is a joint production between the two companies, with Fox's Bryan Singer, Lauren Shuler Donner, Simon Kinberg, and Matt Nix joining Marvel's Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory as the production staff. Nix (Burn Notice, APB) will lead creative production.

"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 release. "There's comic book adventure, emotional and complicated relationships, and a rich, existing mythology from which to draw. With the brilliant production crew behind this project, it has all the makings of a big, fun and exciting new series."

Marvel's head of television, Jeph Loeb, who will be producing the series, said, "Marvel Television is thrilled to be co-producing with 20th Century Fox Television on our first project. Matt's a huge fan of X-Men and his take on the X-Men universe, with its rich characters and high-stakes adventure, is exactly the show we want on FOX. It's a great team of creative producers who will be making something entirely unique."

Loeb, of course, knows the X-Men well, having written them in several comicbook series at Marvel Comics, especially during the early and mid-nineties.

Marvel TV is also co-producing the series Legion for FX, one of 20th Century Fox's cable channels, which was ordered to series to debut in 2017.

On the film side, Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox have had a somewhat tumultuous relationship, as Fox maintains the rights to the X-Men family of characters (as well as the Fantastic Four), though the pair of studios did agree to an interesting character-rights sharing deal over Quicksilver, who appeared (though as a different character and played by different actors) in both Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron and Fox's X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse. While Marvel TV and Fox Television's deal doesn't mean mutants are coming into the Marvel Cinematic Universe anytime soon, it is another sign of an era of cooperation between the companies that was unheard of in years past.

FOX is currently home to DC Comics-based shows Gotham and Lucifer, but this will be the first Marvel co-production that lives on a broadcast channel other than Disney-owned ABC.