Fox In Negotiations With Marvel For 'X-Men' TV Series, Will Not Cross Over With Marvel Shows
With the success of comic book TV shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arrow, The Flash, and Daredevil, it was no surprise that Fox announced plans to develop an X-Men TV series. After a Television Critics Association executive session today, Fox Television Group Chairman and CEO Dana Walden told reporters that negotiations are underway with Marvel to get the series moving forward.
"X-Men, we're in negotiations with Marvel," Walden said. "We're hopeful that we'll be able to announce something soon. We're not closed on a deal yet but it's something we're definitely pursuing."
The relationship between X-Men and Marvel has been complicated in film. 2000's X-Men was one of the first Marvel movie hits, along with Blade and Spider-Man, to shepherd the current comic book movie boom. However, now that Marvel has their own studio, Fox still owns the X-Men properties and continues making X-men movies parallel to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Fox will follow the same model if X-Men comes to television. The Fox series won't intersect with any other Marvel TV shows. "The characters from the X-Men franchise are with Fox on the feature side," Walden said. "So we won't be including Marvel characters that are at ABC with Disney. This will be exclusively the franchise as it has existed at Fox."
The network also airs the DC comic book show Gotham, which is entering its second season. Walden spoke about plans for the Batman prequel, and ruled out spinning off other shows from it, as Arrow has done with The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, at least for the time being.
"Right now we're just focused on the flagship series," Walden said. "I've seen the first episode of the new season. It's fantastic. We're focusing this season on the rise of the villains, on great iconic DC villains. Adding [Michael] Chiklis as the new police commissioner has added a new element. We're really focusing on the flagship. We don't want to be greedy. Bruno [Heller] and Danny [Cannon] have worked very hard to make sure this season delivers on the promise of the first and then we can explore that."
Gotham returns September 21 at 8 on Fox. The eighth X-Men film (counting two Wolverine solo films) is X-Men: Apocalypse, which is due in theaters May 27 2016.