FOX's in-development project Hellfire is going back to square one. The X-Men universe-set series has lost its showrunners and writers to the network's recently greenlit 24: Legacy.

Co-creators Evan Katz and Manny Coto and writers Patrick McKay and John D. Payne are all attached to the Jack Bauer-less return to the world of 24. FOX Co-Chairman and CEO Gary Newman confirmed their departure from Hellfire to The Hollywood Reporter breaking the news.


"We're changing writers because our two writers who are working on it are also working on 24, and we've greenlit 24, so we're going to find new writers," he said at FOX's 2016 winter Television Critics Association press tour party. "We're going to keep it on a fairly slow path because we want to be careful with the property and make sure we get it right. We're really committed to it. I'm sure sometime down the road we'll eventually be making that pilot."

Hellfire is a collaborative effort between X-Men movie producers Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg and Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb to bring the world of X-Men to life on network TV. The potential series will be set in the 1960s and center on the Hellfire Club -- specifically a young Special Agent who learns that “a power-hungry woman with extraordinary abilities is working with a clandestine society of millionaires to take over the world.”

"We really love the whole idea of that," Newman said, though it doesn't sound like there will be many connections to the already established X-Men movie universe. "Obviously our movie division sort of has first call on the property, but we talk to them a lot about it. We want to make sure our show does not interfere with their plans for the movie."

FOX is already the home to the DC Comics universe-set Gotham, and Newman opened up about the appeal of bringing the world of X-Men to the small screen.

"There's such fandom around the X-Men world that we're just looking to tap into that," he said. "We want to do something that feels unique to television. We can't commit with the big screen, pyrotechnics and all that, so we have to do something that's much more character-based. I hope that people look at it and say, 'This is a different way of peering into that world that's more character-based and allows people to have a deeper connection with the property.'"

Hellfire isn't the only TV project in the works centered around Marvel's X-Men. FX ordered a pilot for Legion, which is being executive produced and written by Fargo's Noah Hawley.