Fox is looking for a new way into the X-Men universe.
The network on Tuesday announced that it has handed out a put-pilot commitment to an untitled Marvel action-adventure series. The 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. The series will be a co-production between 20th Century Fox Television and Marvel Television. Burn Notice‘s Matt Nix — who is set as showrunner on the network’s upcoming APB drama — will pen the script and executive produce alongside X-Men franchise veterans Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg as well as Marvel’s Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory.
The news comes less than a year after Fox announced development of the X-Men-themed drama Hellfire. The latter project, which was overseen by Evan Katz and Manny Coto, was scrapped after the duo exited to focus on 24: Legacy, with Patrick McKay and John D. Payne also departing the project in January.
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For Fox, the untitled Marvel entry would extend the network’s superhero-themed offerings. It currently has DC Comics fare Gotham as well as Lucifer. For Marvel, meanwhile, it would give the comic book powerhouse a second series on a broadcast network should it move forward. The news comes months after ABC canceled sophomore drama Agent Carter and passed on Marvel’s Most Wanted, a spinoff of its first broadcast scripted series Agents of SHIELD. Meanwhile, on the cable front, Marvel is teaming with FX and Fargo‘s Noah Hawley for X-Men take Legion, which has already been picked up to series with multiple projects (including Daredevil spinoff Punisher) in the works at Netflix.
