Two X-MEN TV Shows and a Box Office Bomb

Two days ago, 20^th Century Fox and Marvel announced they will be teaming up to develop two new TV shows based on X-Men characters.

Legion will focus on Professor Xavier’s son, David Haller, a gifted and troubled young man diagnosed as a schizophrenic who grapples with his powers. In the New Mutants comic series, Noah has severe mental illness, including multiple personality disorder with each personality controlling one of his superpowers. I have an issue of New Mutants featuring Legion where Xavier and other mutants enter Haller’s mind and see the forces at play. If Marvel and Fox are willing, they could take this character to some very strange and extreme places.

Haller is also known for the most epic of fades.

Noah Hawley of FX’s Fargo will write and executive produce the series, while Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg — who recently produced The Martian and who wrote X-Men: Days of Future Past — will produce both of the new X-Men series. So, it looks as though Marvel is throwing some significant weight behind these projects.

My only hang up is how they will treat Haller’s family ties. Will they mention Xavier? If they do, will we see him? Will he be played by Patrick Stewart? Like any new adaptation, there are a million questions of how it will fit into the bigger picture, but ever since X-Men: First Class, Fox has played it pretty loose with continuity compared to The Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Speaking of First Class, Fox and Marvel also announced Hellfire, a show based on the villainous Hellfire Club. The secret society is known for influencing world events for their own evil goals. I first got to know the Hellfire Club through the ‘90s X-Men animated series where they manipulate Jean Grey and unleash the Dark Phoenix (The Dark Phoenix Part IV). In 2011, Kevin Bacon portrayed Sebastian Shaw and January Jones played Emma Frost, both Hellfire members. It’s unknown whether either character will return for the series or if this show will belong to the larger X-Men movie franchise, but like First Class, Hellfire will be set in the 1960s.

Kevin Bacon ain't got shit on me!

An official press release says this about the series:

“The series… follows a young Special Agent who learns that a power-hungry woman with extraordinary abilities is working with a clandestine society of millionaires – known as “The Hellfire Club” – to take over the world… The story takes place during one of the most explosive eras in recent history.”

This description sounds eerily familiar to the plot of First Class with government agent Moira MacTaggert infiltrating the Hellfire Club, which ultimately leads to the Cuban Missile Crisis. I’m hoping this new series will be more topical by focusing on the civil rights movement — a theme alluded to constantly in the series. As for the special agent aspect, I fear the show could fall victim to the whole human-agents-in-a-comic-book-world mediocrity that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has fallen into — after all, network television excels in mediocre superhero shows.

Lastly, Den of Geek reported that Fox struck this deal with Marvel by handing over the rights to the Fantastic Four. Unfortunately, this is just a rumor as both sides made a statement yesterday denying the deal involved F4, which is too bad considering the absolute atrocity Fox created this summer. According to nearly every film critic alive, Fantastic Four (2015) will be a pain to review.

But that’s what critics are here for, Dear Reader: to jump in front of the bullet from time to time.