Rumor Mill: Will the X-Men show up on the Small Screen?

X-Men '92 cropped image by Pepe Larraz, Marvel Comics, 2015

Rumor has it that Fox, the owners to the movie rights to Marvel’s X-Men (and mutants thereof), may be considering an X-Men TV Series.

Fox originally brought the X-Men to TV when X-Men: The Animated Series hit the air in the 90s. It was well-loved and fondly remembered by kids who grew up watching it.

Then there’s Mutant X, the syndicated series which ran for three seasons, despite not being the pinnacle of television.

Also worth considering is Fox’s track record with the X-Men movies. Among fandom, the series has followers out of devotion to the characters — but those same devoted fans are quick to speak up when Fox makes a misstep. Complaints of characterization (Ryan Reynolds aDeadpool screen test, for example) and going with bankable people who only phone in the role (the Oscar-winning actress who had the role of Storm in the first three movies and DOFP) have been around since the first X-Men film. Channing Tatum was recently cast as Gambit (fan name Chambit). The recent announcements of X-Men: Age Of Apocalypse casting Alex Shipp as Ororo (Storm) Munroe have been met with complaints of colorism. Then there are the complaints that Bryan Singer gives the women X-characters short shrift in comparison with the men. Nobody hates on Hugh Jackman himself, but there has been a persistent unhappiness with the X-movies being pretty much “all Wolverine, all the time.”

So there’s not necessarily a precedent for great things from Fox.

But every cloud has a silver lining (thanks, Ororo!). If they go forward, they may base it on X-Factor, by Peter David (known affectionately to fandom as PAD); not the 2013-2014 vehicle that ended after twenty issues, and has ties to 2099, but the previous one, which was “mutant noir,” with Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man (who appeared briefly in the movies as a villain) as a mutant private eye. If they bring PAD’s writing — or better still, PAD himself — now you’re talking!

Not getting ahead of ourselves, though, Marvel doesn’t seem to really be placing a lot of emphasis on backing TV series that aren’t related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — of which X-Men, unfortunately, are not a part, due to Marvel having sold the rights during their lean times.

It would be great to have another mutant property for fandom to enjoy. It would be fantastic if PAD himself were involved. The buzz is that the writers of (also somewhat problematic) Star Trek 3  may be involved instead.  The first two movies had issues of sexism and whitewashing, but it remains to seen how the third film’s screenplay (and cast) will turn out.

So good news or bad news?  It remains to be seen, and without Destiny to tell us, all we can do is wait.

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Jamie Kingston

Jamie Kingston

Jamie Kingston is a Native New Yorker, enduring a transplant to Atlanta. She’s a lifelong comic fan, having started at age 13 and never looked back, developing a decades-spanning collection and the need to call out the creators when she expects better of them. Her devotion extends to television, films, and books as well as the rare cosplay. She sates her need to create in a number of ways including being an active editor on the TV Tropes website, creating art and fan art, and working on her randomly updating autobiographical web comic, Orchid Coloured Glasses. As a woman of color, she considers it important to focus on diversity issues in the media. She received the Harpy Agenda micro-grant in November of 2015 for exceptional comics journalism by a writer of color.

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