'X-Force' Movie In Development At Fox [Updated: Jeff Wadlow Writing, Possibly Directing]

Thirteen years after the first X-Men, the film series is still going strong with a fifth installment (X-Men: Days of Future Past) due out next year. But Fox hasn't had much luck expanding that world outward. The only spinoff released so far, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, made OK money but earned dreadful reviews. James Mangold's The Wolverine looks more promising, thankfully, but we won't know how things shake out for another few weeks.

With Mark Millar now on board to oversee Fox's X-Men universe, though, the studio seems to be getting more ambitious. Comic book creator Rob Liefeld has now confirmed that an X-Force movie is in development at the studio. "In development" is still several steps away from "in production," let alone "in theaters," but it's a start. Hit the jump for all the details.

Update: Info came fast on this one. Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow has been announced as the screenwriter and possible director.

And by informed, I mean told that an X-Force film was in the planning stages. Much different than shooting a film.

When they cast an X-Force film then its reason to celebrate. They have a Magneto film in 'development' as well. Proceed with caution.

Cross your fingers and hope for good things for X-Force. Being ON the radar is much better than not!

X-Force refers to a superhero team that's distinct from, but co-exists with, the X-Men. Membership has changed over the years, as with most comic book groups, but some of the more prominent teammates have included Cable and Deadpool. Not surprisingly, Liefeld says the movie will focus on fan-favorite characters like those two. The tone of the team has changed drastically, too, beginning with Liefeld's very serious take, then moving towards weirder stuff from Peter Milligan, and an eventual mutation/spin-off into the much more odd X-Statix book from Milligan and Mike Allred.

But expect a more serious take, as Liefeld says:

I can pretty much eliminate some sites suggestion that the Milligan X-Statix stuff is in the mix. An X-Force film is Cable. Is Deadpool.

Which means we know at least one of the stars already. "Ryan Reynolds IS DEADPOOL! Cable could be many..." Liefeld wrote. So even if that long-gestating Deadpool spinoff never takes off, the Merc with a Mouth could return to the screen. At various points the X-Force team has also included Wolverine, Sunspot, and Warpath, who'll appear in X-Men: Days of Future Past, so it'll be interesting to see if any of them get called into action as well.

Update: THR reports the info about Jeff Wadlow coming on board. No more details are available right now.