20th Century Fox is interested in moving the X-Men franchise beyond films starring Magneto, Professor X, Wolverine and the other familiar members and villains of the main X-Men team. The studio’s first project might be X-Force, a team of mutants introduced in the early 1990s. Jeff Wadlow, who just wrapped Kick-Ass 2 has reportedly been hired to write the film.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wadlow has been tapped to write and is hoping to direct. He wrote and directed Kick-Ass 2, based on Mark Millar and John S. Romita Jr.’s original series. (The first Kick-Ass was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who directed the hit X-Men: First Class.)
The news comes as comic blogs have been reporting that Fox has registered the domain name xforcemovie.com, notes MTV News. Also, BleedingCool is reporting that Fox may use its Comic-Con panel next weekend to break the big news.
X-Force was created by artist Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza. The first issue was released in 1991 and set sales records with 5 million copies sold. The characters are still popular, with Marvel publishing Uncanny X-Force and Cable and X-Force.
Fox has two X-Men movies hitting theaters soon. The Wolverine is out on July 26 and Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past is expected on May 23, 2014. Kick-Ass 2 is out on Aug. 16.
image: Amazon