In January this year, FOX announced that it is pulling the plug on the planned television adaptation of "X-Men" series titled "Hellfire," despite fans' support for the project. Recently, the network has come out to explain the shutdown on the project.
The "Hellfire" series was supposed to follow through with the Hellfire Club fans saw in "X-Men First Class." To refresh everyone's memory, it was the group of baddies led by Kevin Bacon's Sebastian Shaw and January Jones' Emma Frost. The "Hellfire" series would have centered on a special agent who discovers a "power-hungry woman with extraordinary abilities" which she uses to work with a group of millionaires - a.k.a. "The Hellfire Club - and take over the world.
Unfortunately, "Hellfire" will not make it to the small screen as FOX seems to have abandoned it, with producers Evan Katz and Manny Coto signing off. Screenwriters Patrick McKay and JD Payne are also no longer with the project.
Speaking to /FILM, Fox's Dana Walden commented that "Hellfire" "felt like a show that wanted to live as a feature rather than really taking advantage of what television does best: exploring relationships and characters and smaller moments.
She added that the initial draft for "Hellfire" felt like it would do better as another installment of the "X-Men" movie franchise, instead of a less-grand television adaptation.
Despite the news, fans have nothing to worry about as still-untitled "X-Men" series is in the works. "There will be some iconic characters but mostly this is about a new family," Walden said about the project, Collider quotes. "It's about an average family who encounters this extraordinary world and children who have mutant powers and they end up on the run, so it's a little bit underground railroad in terms of a storytelling spine."
Matt Nix ("Burn Notice") is writing the story, with Bryan Singer, Lauren Shuler Donner, Jeph Loeb, Jim CHory and Simon Kinberg executive producing.
The "X-Men" title is slowly making its way to television, following other Marvel and DC Comics properties. Fox-owned FX is launching "Legion," which will star "Downton Abbey" alum Dan Stevens as David Haller.