'X-Men' TV Series News 2015: Fox Negotiations With Marvel Ongoing
"X-Men" has always been a major success when it comes to the big screen for over 15 years. So this time, Fox wants to bring the adventures of the mutants to the small screen. Fox is pursuing a deal with Disney and Marvel to give the mutants their own "long-running" series, and not just a limited run.
During the Television Critics Association Press Tour, Fox Network co-chairman Dana Walden revealed that the network is now currently doing negotiations with Marvel.
"We're in negotiations with Marvel," she revealed to the press. "We're hopeful that we'll be able to announce something soon. It's something we're definitely pursuing."
It can be recalled that the television rights of the "X-Men" became a complicated one when Marvel was going through bankruptcy in 1996. According to Indie Wire, Fox only controls feature film rights to the "X-Men Universe", which includes "Deadpool" and "Gambit", among others. With regards to TV rights, they still need to be negotiated through Marvel who on the other hand, prefers to keep every Marvel property be under their sphere.
The two companies also went through a messy case in court when Marvel tried to produce a TV series called "Mutant X" in 2001 that Fox considered just a replacement show of "X-Men" and a violation of their licensing agreement made in the past, according to Geek.
Walden also explained that if ever an "X-Men" TV show would push through, it could only include characters from Fox's X-Men movie universe, as per licensing contracts with Marvel and Marvel Studios to avoid any conflict.
"The characters from the X-Men franchise are with Fox on the feature side, so we won't be including Marvel characters that are at ABC with Disney," said Walden. As of the moment, the potential series is still in the earliest stages of development with several meetings going on
