We’re just a week away now from the premiere of Legion, while a new X-Men TV series is also in the works over at Fox. Described as a family drama, we recently learned that Bryan Singer will take the helm of the pilot episode, something which marks an unexpected return to the franchise for the filmmaker following the release of X-Men: Apocalypse last year.
Singer will also be an executive producer, a role he’s familiar with after serving in that capacity on both Legion and House, another popular Fox drama which had a good run. It’s really his job as director on the X-Men movies though that people know him for and talking in a recent interview about bringing the franchise to the small screen, he had the following to say:
“Marvel Studios, they do their own films, then Fox Studios, we sort of do them separately when I make the X-Men films. Marvel Television is different. Their TV division works more closely with Fox. I’m actually directing one for Fox network, an X-Men related television show, which we started prepping today. Their television people work with us. It’s nice because we get backstory, we get information. I can’t read every comic book. So I want as much input as possible.”
Going back to House, Singer reflected on the success of that series and how he now hopes to emulate that with this currently untitled X-Men TV show, which will shoot over the summer.
“I’ve had great success with my TV show House on television. I love the format. I think it’s growing. Some of the best writing is in television. And you can tell stories over long stretches of time. It’s not the two-hour experience, it could be years of an experience. So why not take a universe that’s so multi-faceted like X-Men and bring it to this medium?”
Very little is known about this series as of right now beyond the fact that the Sentinels will appear, and it’s going to be pretty interesting seeing whether or not the franchise can succeed on TV. Marvel has done well on Netflix so far, but struggled on ABC. As such, this X-Men TV show will have to be quite good in order to stand out from the crowd. Singer’s involvement should certainly help with that, but given the mixed response to X-Men: Apocalypse, an argument could also be made that maybe someone else should be at the helm of this project.
What do you think, though? Is Bryan Singer the right man for the job? Sound off below and give us your thoughts!