A new TV series based on Marvel's X-Men comic book and film franchise is in the works - though in its very early stages.
US network Fox is in discussions with Marvel to turn X-Men into a live-action TV series, the network's chairman Gary Newman has confirmed following months of speculation online.
"It's in negotiations," Newman told TV Insider. "We're cautiously optimistic, we had a good meeting with them. [But it] will not be on a fast track creatively. This is just the deal, now we have to find the creative."
Newman also confirmed that because the project is at such an early stage, it currently has no writer or guiding concept and the potential series would be unlikely to air before the 2016-2017 TV season. Fox previously aired an animated X-Men TV series aimed at younger viewers from 2002-7.
Fox is inching closer to a live-action X-Men series.
"[For] X-Men, we're in negotiations with Marvel. We're hopeful we'll be able to announce something soon. We're not closed on a deal yet but it's something we're definitely pursuing," Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden told THR on Thursday at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour stop.
As THR previously reported, Fox's potential live-action series is being penned by Star Trek 3 writing duo Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne; they will share a "created by" credit with 24's Evan Katz and Manny Coto, who also will serve as showrunners.
Fox studio counterpart 20th Century Fox owns the rights to the film franchise (with seven features already released based on X-Men characters and Gambit with Channing Tatum in the pipeline). While conversations to bring the franchise to the small screen are underway, sources indicate a deal is far from complete, with Marvel — which owns the comic rights — still having to sign off on the deal. The comic book powerhouse is based at Disney, with ABC shows including Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter on the network and five upcoming straight-to-series programs in the works there. Marvel would have to sign off on the deal.
"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," Walden said of how the deal with Marvel will be structured. "This will be exclusively the franchise as it has existed at Fox."
The goal, she said, was for X-Men to be a "long-running" series — not a limited revival a la 24: Live Another Day and the Prison Break revival, which Walden and Fox TV Group chairman and CEO Gary Newman announced early Thursday.
Fox is looking for a new way into the X-Men universe.
The network on Tuesday announced that it has handed out a put-pilot commitment to an untitled Marvel action-adventure series. The untitled project will focus on two ordinary parents who discover their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive. The series will be a co-production between 20th Century Fox Television and Marvel Television. Burn Notice's Matt Nix — who is set as showrunner on the network's upcoming APB drama — will pen the script and executive produce alongside X-Men franchise veterans Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg as well as Marvel's Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory.
The news comes less than a year after Fox announced development of the X-Men-themed drama Hellfire. The latter project, which was overseen by Evan Katz and Manny Coto, was scrapped after the duo exited to focus on 24: Legacy, with Patrick McKay and John D. Payne also departing the project in January.
For Fox, the untitled Marvel entry would extend the network's superhero-themed offerings. It currently has DC Comics fare Gotham as well as Lucifer. For Marvel, meanwhile, it would give the comic book powerhouse a second series on a broadcast network should it move forward. The news comes months after ABC canceled sophomore drama Agent Carter and passed on Marvel's Most Wanted, a spinoff of its first broadcast scripted series Agents of SHIELD. Meanwhile, on the cable front, Marvel is teaming with FX and Fargo's Noah Hawley for X-Men take Legion, which has already been picked up to series with multiple projects (including Daredevil spinoff Punisher) in the works at Netflix.
“Developing a Marvel property has been a top priority for the network — and we are so pleased with how Matt Nix has led us into this thrilling universe,” Fox Entertainment president David Madden said in a statement. “There’s comic book adventure, emotional and complicated relationships and a rich, existing mythology from which to draw. With the brilliant production crew behind this project, it has all the makings of a big, fun and exciting new series.”
Said Jonathan Davis, president of creative affairs at 20th: “Working with Marvel on a television series for Fox has been a professional dream for our head of development, Michael Thorn, and all of us at the studio. Matt, Lauren, Bryan, Simon, Jeph and Jim are a powerhouse team of creative artists, and we can’t wait to get started on what will easily be one of this development season’s most exciting new projects.”
For its part, Fox has been trying for years to bring X-Men to TV. Fox studio counterpart 20th Century Fox owns the rights to the film franchise (with seven features already released based on X-Men characters and Gambit with Channing Tatum in the pipeline).
It's official: Fox is moving forward with its highly anticipated live-action X-Men project.
The network on Tuesday handed out a formal pilot order to its untitled Marvel action-adventure drama, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
From Burn Notice grad and APB showrunner Matt Nix, the project focuses on two ordinary parents who discover their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive.
Diehard X-Men fan Nix will pen the script for the "action-adventure" project and serve as showrunner on the potential series, which hails from 20th Century Fox TV and Marvel TV. The drama stems from Nix's overall deal with 20th TV. Nix executive produces alongside X-Men franchise veterans Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg as well as Marvel's Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory.
This marks Fox's second overall pilot order and first drama. It joins fellow hourlong entry Orville, with the Seth MacFarlane hourlong dramedy scoring a 13-episode straight-to-series order.
Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Nix said the Fox drama — unlike Noah Hawley's upcoming X-Men take Legion — is connected to the larger X-Men universe. "A fan of the movies but also the comics would not be disoriented at all as to where this fits in the mythology," he said. "If you look at the movies, which take place from — they started in 2003 to now — they don't all line up perfectly. I'm not slavishly fitting them into a particular slot. But at the same time, if you like the world of the movies, there are definite nods to the movies. It exists in the same general universe."
Pressed as to whether there will be a direct tie-in with the features in a way on par as to how ABC's Marvel drama Agents of SHIELD does, Nix said the drama would feature new and familiar characters and "acknowledges that events like the events that have happened in movies have happened. But it's not up to date."
For Marvel, this marks the comic book powerhouse's latest foray into scripted television and second live-action X-Men show following FX's Legion, due next month. The company also has ABC and Imax's upcoming The Inhumans as well as veteran Agents of SHIELD on top of multiple shows at Netflix, including The Punisher, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and The Defenders.
The pilot order arrives as Fox has been trying for years to bring X-Men to TV. Fox studio counterpart 20th Century Fox owns the rights to the film franchise (with multiple features already released based on X-Men characters).
Fox is turning to an X-Men expert to helm its Matt Nix drama.
The network has tapped Bryan Singer to direct the untitled Marvel drama, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. In addition, Singer will executive produce the potential series — which would mark the first live-action X-Men entry on broadcast.
From Burn Notice grad and APB showrunner Nix, the action-adventure drama focuses on two ordinary parents who discover their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive.
Die-hard X-Men fan Nix will pen the script and serve as showrunner on the drama from 20th Century Fox TV and Marvel TV. The project stems from Nix's overall deal with 20th TV. Nix executive produces alongside X-Men franchise veterans Lauren Shuler Donner, Singer and Simon Kinberg as well as Marvel's Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory.
For Singer, the Fox drama marks his latest TV helming foray following Battle Creek, House and Bryan Fuller's Munsters reboot, Mockingbird Lane. On the feature side, Singer is an X-Men pro having directed the first feature film in the franchise in 2000 as well as its 2003 sequel, 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past and last year's X-Men: Apocalypse. His other feature directing credits include Superman Returns and the upcoming 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He's repped by WME and Bloom Hergott.
Amy Acker Set as Female Lead in Fox's Marvel Drama
Fox's Marvel drama has cast its leading lady and diehard fanboys are going to love it.
Person of Interest and Angel alum has nabbed the female lead in the untitled Marvel drama from Matt Nix, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Also joining the cast are Bunheads grad Emma Dumont and Percy Hynes White (Between).
The action-adventure project focuses on two ordinary parents (True Blood's Stephen Moyer, Acker) who discover their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive.
Acker will star as Kate Stewart, a woman who is struggling with her separation from her husband Reed (Moyer) and her increasingly challenging teenage children. When her family situation takes a dark turn, she finds that she's stronger than she thinks.
For Acker, the casting brings her back to Fox and producers 20th Century Fox Television following her two-season run on Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. Her credits include Whedon's Angel and Much Ado About Nothing. She's fresh off her multiple-season run on CBS' Person of Interest, which wrapped its run in June, and counts CBS' MacGyver and Alias among her credits. She's repped by APA, Anonymous Content and Sloane Offer.
Dumont, meanwhile, will take on the role of Lorna Dane/Polaris — a strong-willed, brave and loyal mutant who has the ability to manipulate magnetism. Her credits include NBC's Aquarius, Bunheads and Pretty Little Liars. She's with APA, Untitled and Bloom Hergott.
White will portray Andy, a sensitive kid and bit of a loner who keeps to himself to avoid the turmoil he faces at school and at home. His credits include Between, 11.22.63 and Night at the Museum. He's with Innovative Artists and OAZ.
Burn Notice grad Nix wrote the pilot, which X-Men franchise veteran Bryan Singer will direct. The duo executive produce alongside Lauren Shuler Donner, Simon Kinberg, Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory. 20th Century Fox Television will produce in association with Marvel Television.
The cast includes Natalie Alyn Lind, Blair Redford (Switched at Birth), Jamie Chung, Sean Teale.
Fox Orders Marvel Drama 'The Gifted,' From Matt Nix and Bryan Singer, to Series
As expected, Fox is going the distance with Marvel.
The network has handed out a series order to The Gifted, formerly the untitled Marvel project from Matt Nix and Bryan Singer. The drama will debut in the fall, according to the first-look footage released Tuesday ahead of its on-air debut next week.
The Gifted, aka the untitled don't-call-it X-Men Marvel drama, has been a slam dunk for a series pickup since before it was ordered to pilot. From Burn Notice showrunner Nix, the show revolves around a suburban couple (Amy Acker, Stephen Moyer) whose ordinary lives are rocked by the sudden discovery that their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive. Natalie Alyn Lind, Percy Hynes White, Blair Redford, Jamie Chung, Sean Teale, Cody Bell and Emma Dumont round out the cast.
Nix serves as showrunner and will executive produce alongside Lauren Shuler Donner, Simon Kinberg, Marvel Television's Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory. X-Men staple Bryan Singer directed the pilot and will also exec produce the 20th Century Fox Television drama.
The Gifted marks Marvel Television's first broadcast expansion beyond ABC, where the comic book powerhouse has Agents of SHIELD expected to return for another season as well as its forthcoming Imax collaboration The Inhumans. On the cable/streaming side, the company also has FX's Legion, Freeform's New Warriors and Hulu's Runaways as well as a slate of Netflix titles including The Punisher, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and mini The Defenders. The pickup gives Fox both a Marvel drama as well as a show from DC Entertainment as Batman prequel Gotham is also expected to be renewed.
Watch the first promo for The Gifted, above. It becomes Fox's third order for the 2017-18 broadcast season, joining Seth MacFarlane live-action dramedy Orville and another cycle of The X-Files.
'The Gifted': What to Expect From Fox's New X-Men Series
Fair warning: despite its roots in Marvel's X-Men franchise, everyone tuning into The Gifted when it premieres Oct. 2 on Fox should be advised that you won't see Wolverine popping his claws over the course of the first episode, if ever in the series.
Rather than focusing on the adamantium-laced mutant and his familiar allies and adversaries, The Gifted turns its attention toward a closer-knit set of characters: the Strucker family, a foursome consisting of patriarch and prosecutor Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer of True Blood, whose spouse Anna Paquin was a foundational member of the X-Men cinematic universe as Rogue), his wife Caitlin (played by genre icon Amy Acker, with some superhero credits already to her name, including a brief turn in ABC's Agents of SHIELD), and their two children Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Andy (Percy Hynes White).
The Struckers live in a world where mutants are a very much known quantity — or "persons of genetic difference," as Andy calls them at one point in the pilot episode, directed by X-Men movie mastermind Bryan Singer — and are not only not tolerated, but actively pursued and imprisoned (or worse) by the government, primarily through the Sentinel Services Program, a name that should ring quite a few bells for X-Men fans.
For his part, Reed spends his professional life prosecuting mutants for criminal activities, never once worrying about how that stance could blow back onto his personal life — not until he discovers that his two children are secretly carriers of the mutant gene, forcing the entire Strucker family on the run.
While these four family members are very much at the heart of The Gifted, they aren't the only ones the show focuses on. Indeed, the Fox series draws upon more than a few familiar faces from the X-Men mythos, including the teleporting mutant known as Blink (Jamie Chung), whose comic book roots trace back to the "Age of Apocalypse" line of comics from the mid 1990s. The Gifted marks Blink's second live-action appearance, as the character was previously brought to life in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past, also directed by Singer. But just to clear up any confusion: these are two different Blinks, rooted in the same source material, but unconnected to each other otherwise.
Really, even as the oldest interconnected cinematic superhero universe in the game, the X-Men film franchise's continuity is complicated at best, downright messy at worst. Trying to map out where Singer's first two X-Men films fit alongside Brett Ratner's much maligned X-Men: The Last Stand, let alone how that original trilogy interweaves with the prequel films First Class, Days of Future Past and Apocalypse, is no easy task. Try throwing FX's Legion into the mix, and you're in for such a headache that your latent mutant powers might finally manifest.
Here's the good news, then: throw all those continuity expectations out the window. Showrunner Matt Nix (Burn Notice) tells The Hollywood Reporter that while The Gifted very much deals with the X-Men (and specifically their absence, which is directly acknowledged in the first episode of the series) and considers many moments from the movies to be "canonical," it's not trying to interact with the films much at all. Instead, The Gifted takes certain characters and ideas from the X-Men comic books, themes that resonate throughout various different stories featuring Marvel's mutants, and combines all of those things in one brand new adventure designed to be new-user friendly.
With all of that said, it's worth stopping down to hash out what exactly you should expect from The Gifted once it hits the road. Here's Nix's take on the basics of what you need to know before the premiere.
What are people getting themselves into when they sit down to watch The Gifted?
The big thing is we're trying to make a really grounded superhero drama that's really about the characters, and is really relevant to the things that are going on in our world right now. I would say to anybody, basically, watch this show because it's about us. It's not about some exotic superheroes, or any of that kind of thing. We have those things, but it's not about people running around blowing stuff up. It's about a family. It's about characters struggling with real issues in a world that's only a few steps away from our own. Our approach to all of it has been from the beginning, thinking less about superheroes as some kind of exotic thing over there, and more about what it is to be that person, and what are the emotional lives of these people? We want to put the audience in the shoes of the mutants and the shoes of a family that's dealing with these issues on a very personal level. That's my pitch: it's about the characters, it's about the issues, it's about our world, and hopefully, if you watch this show, whether or not you're a superhero fan, you're going to see something that matters to you.
Is it fair to label The Gifted an X-Men series, in your mind?
It's set in the X-Men universe, but it sort of depends on how you define it. There's the X-Men as a team, and that's a thing that the movies do. This isn't about the X-Men. It exists in a world where the X-Men are gone, and that's an issue for people [in the story]. On the other hand, if you're a fan of the X-Men, and if that's the kind of drama and the kinds of issues that you like from a story? Then absolutely, that's what we're dealing with. It's a show set in the X-Men universe, dealing with a lot of those themes, hitting a lot of the buttons that aren't necessarily about a team of superheroes known as the X-Men.
When you say it's set in the X-Men universe, I'm curious about what you mean, because the cinematic universe is a hard one to wrap the mind around. What kind of conversations did you, Fox and Bryan Singer have about where The Gifted fits within the live-action established X-Men universe that already exists?
It's definitely its own thing. Let me put it this way: the movies kind of did us a favor, by establishing that they don't have a strict timeline anymore. They quite specifically shattered their timeline into a whole different set of things, which is great for us. The X-Men cinematic universe is now essentially an X-Men cinematic multiverse, because X-Men: Days of Future Past blew everything up. Now, the movies, for a time, have been telling stories for a time that, if you look at them, are completely incompatible with each other, on a timeline level. Their explanation for it is they blew up the timeline. It's not relevant anymore. It gave us a lot of freedom to say we exist in our own universe that's related to everything that's gone on. It's not like we're not conscious of it and we're not trying to undo or counteract anything from the people who haven't seen the movies, but we do get to do our own thing while still nodding to stuff that people care about, and that we care about in the movies and the comics.
And that's the other thing: it's important to keep in mind that all of this comes from the comics. People will talk about how it's all about the movies, but the truth is... Blink's a great example. In the comics, she's this very mouthy and interesting character with a huge personality. In Days of Future Past, she's a great character. She's super cool. But I think she says two words, right? To me, our Blink is more drawn from the comics. We're not trying to use this version of the character to set up the two words she says in Days of Future Past. I don't think that would be satisfying for anybody. Ultimately, the filling-in-the-blanks between movies isn't satisfying, or telling these stories that are off in a corner. I don't think that's very dramatically interesting.
In your mind, then, do you feel The Gifted pulls more from the comic book mythos, rather than trying to fit into the movie multiverse?
Yes, and at the same time, we're definitely conscious of the movies. Bryan directed the pilot. We don't want to undermine or avoid it. There are things from the movies that we would regard as canonical. It's just that we're not saying, "This happens before this movie, and that happens after this movie. We're setting up this thing that's going to happen in this movie, and paying off another thing from another movie." It's not related that way. It wouldn't be satisfying if we tried, because not even the movies are related that way anymore. Is Mystique someone that Xavier just met, or is she someone that Xavier grew up with? It depends on which movie you're watching!
The X-Men exist in the world of The Gifted, or at least, they used to. How much should we expect the absence of the X-Men to serve as a driving force in this series?
It's not a series about finding the X-Men. That said? The X-Men, and the disappearance of the X-Men... one of the things we'll be exploring over the course of the series overall is the relationship between everything that happens in the show to the X-Men. This is definitely not a show about, "Where did the X-Men go? We have to run around and save them!" It's not that at all. But we're not done with them. It's definitely an important mystery. It's something we're going to explore. Our mutants have enough problems of their own. It's more about what is the relationship of the X-Men — and by the way, not just the X-Men, but other things from the movies and the comics are related to our world in ways we'll explore and will unfold over times. The X-Men aren't the only ones who are gone. The Brotherhood [of Evil Mutants, as they're known in the comics] are gone, too. That's another thing that will unfold over time. But we're not running around trying to find the characters from the movies.
'The Gifted' Boss Breaks Down Those Premiere Reveals (and Cameos)
[Warning: this story contains spoilers for the series premiere of Fox's The Gifted.]
Anyone who tuned into Fox's new X-Men drama The Gifted purely because they needed their Vampire Bill fix, don't worry: the powers that be have not yanked erstwhile True Blood star Stephen Moyer off the playing field for good.
The opening hour of the new superhero series focuses on the Strucker family, four individuals forced on the run after kids Andy (Percy Hynes White) and Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) are outed as mutants in a world that's extremely intolerant of their kind — so intolerant, in fact, that both the X-Men and the militant Brotherhood of Mutants no longer exist, at least not in any public capacity.
Indeed, the mutant underground is a major aspect of the series thus far as well, with the spotlight on a character invented purely for the show, Marco Diaz (Sean Teale), also known as Eclipse. Three very familiar mutants are along for the ride as well: Thunderbird (Blair Redford), best known for his comic book death shortly after debuting in 1975's Giant-Size X-Men; Blink (Jamie Chung), a teleporting mutant who hails from the parallel dimension known as the Age of Apocalypse in the comics; and Polaris (Emma Dumont), a magnetically-inclined mutant whose father just might be one of the most famous supervillains of all time: Magneto.
The drama surrounding Polaris doesn't end there, of course. At the end of the pilot's opening act, Polaris is apprehended by Sentinel Services, a task force devoted to tracking down mutants, imprisoning them, and likely much worse. Reed Strucker, played by Moyer, a prosecutor involved in convicting mutants he deems dangerous, tells the incarcerated Polaris and eventually reveals to her lover Eclipse that she's pregnant, adding all-new levels of complexity to an already delicate relationship.
Reed will very likely have to deal with the uncomfortable dynamic firsthand before much longer, as the episode concludes with him getting shot by Sentinel Services just before he can teleport away alongside his family. Don't worry, he hasn't gone the way of a certain Game of Thrones protagonist, killed off way before his time. Showrunner Matt Nix insists there's more to Reed's story, destined to intertwine with Polaris, and bound to draw in the rest of the Struckers and mutants still fighting their way forward in the free world — such as a free world exists in The Gifted.
For more on the premiere, read Nix's thoughts on why The Gifted ended on such a deadly note, how the histories of certain comic book characters like Polaris and Thunderbird will factor into the series moving forward, and the stories behind two of the best cameos of the episode: the return of the classic 1990s theme song from Fox's Saturday morning X-Men cartoon series, and Marvel's truest believer himself, Stan Lee.
We haven't been Sean Beaned, right? You didn't just kill off Stephen Moyer's character in the pilot?
No, I did not Sean Bean you. (Laughs.) He's in big trouble, but he's not dead.
What were your goals in terms of how you wanted to leave The Gifted at the end of this very first hour?
One big part of it is the family and the mutant underground are now physically together, and they don't have identical goals, but both Polaris and Reed are in the hands of Sentinel Services. It brings them together, and gives them a reason to make common cause, and also gives them a reason why they can't go to Mexico. It puts them all together, and at the same time, we get to follow Polaris and Reed, who are in a very bad situation themselves. We get to see both sides of those world, as Polaris and Reed have to deal with Sentinel Services, and the family has to deal with this world they just met three minutes before, and now they have to depend upon them utterly. The end of the pilot was really about getting these people together for a common problem, but they don't know each other, so what's going to happen now?
You bring up Polaris, and we learn in this episode that she's pregnant. It was teased in the comics, and I believe eventually revealed that Polaris is indeed the daughter of Magneto. Is that an idea you're interested in exploring through Polaris — the idea of generations, and how different people within this different family line can take on different meanings moving forward?
(Long pause.) Family history is very important to this show. (Laughs.) The Brotherhood is gone, but yes, and not just with her. The Struckers are not named the Struckers by accident. One of the things for everybody on the show — you see it a lot in the promotion about family, but going person by person in the show, you have all of these people and for the mutants as well, they have come together as a family. Eclipse and Polaris are in a position of starting a family, and what does that mean in their world? Polaris has a complicated family history, Eclipse has a complicated family history, Thunderbird is dealing with his own issues of feeling the weight of thousands of years of Apache history and mutant history and an obligation to both families. Blink, as well. Where did Blink come from? What's her history? That's an example where, kind of like Polaris with Magneto, that the comics are so all over the place that we get to do our own thing and nod to some of what we liked from the comics...
If you're voyaging into Age of Apocalypse territory via Blink, I'll be prepared to call this the best superhero show of all time.
(Big laugh.) Well, the actual Apocalypse is a little hard to do on television. But we're working through those things! So, yeah, that's the idea. We're going to explore the family histories and interpersonal relationships of all of these characters, and all of them are feeling the pressure of history and the pressure of the past.
In keeping with that idea, it's a frightening prospect to have Thunderbird on the show, when you know he's most famous for dying shortly after Giant-Size X-Men in 1975. Should we prepare ourselves for a giant-size bummer in Thunderbird's future?
If you're asking if Thunderbird is immediately doomed, the answer is no. That said, when you see him in the pilot, he's the level-headed guy, right? Which is not who he is in the comics. But one of the fun things to explore is, what's the relationship of this guy to the Thunderbird of the comics? Getting into some of his internal turmoil, and how did he come to be this guy, and what's he dealing with internally, and what anger does he have... that's the thing about his character. What a way to exit, man! We're kind of trying to be conscious of that, while at the same time not just randomly killing off our characters.
We learn in the pilot that the two Strucker children are both mutants. Lauren's had her powers for years, while Andy is discovering his for the first time, which is the big thrust behind why the family is on the run. Are you leaving the exact nature of Andy's powers purposely vague at this point?
It's definitely part of the mystery. In my own thinking about powers and stuff, and the way we geek out when we're reading comics and we think about what it would be like to have powers... one of the things that you see in the pilot is, what does it feel like? Nobody ever talks about the powers. Does it hurt? I guess they talk about it with Wolverine in [the first X-Men movie], when he says it hurts every time, but that's really the only time they address that question. Is it fun? The other thing I thought about is when your powers manifest, they don't come with a label. It's not like somebody pops up and says, "Hey! You can do this!" When we think about powers on the show, what's the organic relationship between this person as a living, breathing human being, and their power? The idea is that what your power is and what you can do is influenced by who you are as a character.
If you're Lauren Strucker and you can push molecules together, but you're a 17 year old girl and you're hiding [your powers] from your family and you're kind of afraid, then your powers manifests itself as shields. But in another person who had a different emotion, and someone who is a further evolution of Lauren with a different emotional life, that power might be able to manifest differently. She doesn't have the power of shields. She has the power of pushing molecules together, and that manifests itself as shields. Similarly, Andy has this power where he starts ripping things apart. What is that? We can call it a telekinetic destruction field, but to me, that's less interesting than him having to explore it and him having to understand what specifically he's doing. What's the relationship of his power to Lauren's power? How does that work?
There are generations of comic book and superhero history where characters get a power and they understand it almost perfectly from the moment they get it, unless it's [the TV series] Greatest American Hero from the early 1980s. But to me, everyone's favorite part of Spider-Man is when he learns how to be Spider-Man. Once he knows everything, it's still fun, but it's super fun to see him learn how to use his powers.
What's the story behind securing the animated X-Men theme song as a ring tone?
Honestly, we did it initially as a joke for the cut. Then we were like, "No, we have to do this." We were told we couldn't do it, and we basically said, "No, really, this needs to happen. We're doing this." It's one of those things where there aren't a lot of those battles you get to win when you're making a network television show, but that one? We knew it cost more money than a regular ring tone, but it's so much fun so we're doing it. Pay the money. (Laughs.) I was very happy we got that.
Is it a one-time only or is the ring tone of the season?
It might reoccur! We don't want everyone to just be waiting around for it.
How did the Stan Lee cameo come together?
We moved heaven and earth to get him in there. The morning we got him, one of our co-executice producers texted me in the morning and told me Stan Lee was in town for a comic book convention. We went to the convention to get him on the show, and they told us, "He flies out at four. If you can shoot him in two hours, then you can have Stan Lee in the show." We didn't have that location. We didn't have anything. We were just like, "Okay, it's a bar? Do anything you can. We have to get the bar. We have to get the actor out of bed and bring him down here to put the costume on. We have to shoot the scene in 20 minutes!" We went down there, we shot the scene, Stan Lee was like, "Thanks very much!" Then he rode off to get on a plane. That's the kind of thing where I think people sometimes underestimate the degree to which we who make the show are just another group of fanboys trying to make something happen by the skin of our teeth.
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