Remember back in like 2005 when everyone said comic book movies were just a passing fad? That was cute, wasn't it. Here we are 17 years later with the property that started it all, X-Men, being given the greenlight for production at FOX. To add to the fervor you should be developing right now Bryan Singer, who's lead the film properties to amazing heights both as director and producer, has agreed to direct the pilot of the, as of yet, unnamed show.
The story, it would appear, is going to be more familial then what you may have expected from an X-Men TV show. It won't be the day to day goings on at Xavier's mansion, like a Mutants 90210, which I would absolutely watch. No, it's a slightly more compelling concept, probably the most interesting aspect of the X-Men universe (outside of the powers of course). The story will follow two non-mutant parents who discover that their children are mutants and are forced to go on the run to escape persecution, working with undercover mutants along the way. First and foremost I'm happy to see a scenario in which the parents still love their children after their mutancy is revealed. I know that the X gene, and X-Men as a whole has been used as a metaphor for homosexuality and given that tolerance is just now getting to a somewhat acceptable level in the past it would make sense that all of the families portrayed would be ashamed of their mutant kids...they were just mirroring the real world, as sad as that may be.
On a larger scale this small bit of information tells us a ton about the world in which the story takes place, the X-Men universe in the context of this show, has already gotten to a place of outright persecution of any and all mutants. The show WILL connect to the film series, though how has not yet been revealed. It has also been rumored that the show will feature sentinels, thought they won't be like any we've seen before. The series is being co-produced by Marvel television so the possibilities are literally endless, there is no single catalog of characters as deep as the X-Men
I may be overstating things but this series has the potential to be the logical future for the X-Men universe. Hugh Jackman's out as Wolverine, Jennifer Lawerence has publicly stated she's got no love for the blue body paint, and the reaction to last year's X-Men: Apocalypse was less then stellar. The Marvel Netflix series have shown us that TV is the format best suited to comic-book world. Of course we will always have big-budget tentpole movies but that's not the natural state of the comic-book, they are episodic for which TV is uniquely qualified. I think it would be amazing to watch the first season unfold as the characters come to terms with their mutant classification, link up with some familiar faces and eventually get to a place where we ARE watching the weekly adventures of Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
