Ever since the very first X-Men film went into production,Insaaf (2023) EP 2 Hindi Web Series filmmaker Bryan Singer has, minus a step out of the universe here and there, held a Professor X-level degree of authority over the movie franchise. Now he’s expanding the world of the mutant superheroes into television -- and he’s even getting behind the camera himself for the pilot.

Mashablecaught up with Singer at the premiere of the FX's new X-verse series, Legion, created by Fargo's Noah Hawley, which counts Singer as an executive producer. Legionis the first co-production between Marvel Television and 20th Century Fox (the studio that owns the film and TV rights to Marvel's X-Men characters under a long-held licensing agreement) -- but it won't be the last.

SEE ALSO: New 'Logan' trailer features Wolverine reading an 'X-Men' comic

Along with discussing the nature of the Fox/Marvel team-up, potential X-Men movie crossovers, and Legion's (current) standalone status in X-continuity, Singer offered Mashablea first glimpse at what he has planned for the just-announced X-Menseries for Fox.

The untitled project from Matt Nix has been ordered to pilot, and will center around two ordinary parents who discover that their children have mutant abilities, forcing the family to go on the run from the government and join up with an underground mutant network to survive.

Legionwas designed to be self-contained, not necessarily tied to the X-Men cinematic continuity. Did you leave a back door to say, “If this works out a certain way, we can integrate it with other X-Men storylines?”

Singer:Initially, this was really meant to be a standalone. That can always evolve. Those kinds of things can always happen. That wasn’t the intention in the beginning. I think the intention of all of us was always to make something that could be a standalone show, and its relationship to X-Menbe a bonus for fans, and for discovery as the show evolves.

There’s a dividing line between the X-Menuniverse and the films and TV shows made for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Legion, however, is produced by Marvel Television. How does this project incorporate Marvel? How is this different from what we’ve seen in the way the films are made?

Marvel Studios, they do their own films, then Fox Studios, we sort of do them separately when I make the X-Menfilms. 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.

SEE ALSO: Get into Dan Stevens' head in FX's 'Legion' trailer

So tell me more about this new X-Menshow. It’s exciting that you’re bringing that to television as a producer and a director of the pilot. What can you say about it at this point?

I’ll tell you, it’s very different from [Legion], visually, and yet it’s very different from the X-Menfilms as well. It’s mostly about a family. It’s a family drama. There’ll be effects, powers, and things like that. But at its heart, it’s about a family. It’s an emotional story.

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Is it a reboot? Or is it in the continuity that we know?

No -- standalone. It’s another standalone. That’s our design. We developed it together -- not together, but like at the same time. The only reason I was able to direct it was because the movie I want to make next, I’m not going to be able to make until September, so it gave me four months, and I suddenly said, “Why don’t I take the helm?”

Will this be a whole new crop of X-characters? Or new takes on ones we’ve seen already?

There’ll be some familiar and some unfamiliar.

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What got you creatively excited about bringing it to TV?

I’ve had great success with my TV show Houseon 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-Menand bring it to this medium?

Tell me about the bird’s-eye view of the X-Menfranchise now: you’re always intimately involved in it. What are we looking at in the universe-building that’s prevailing?

Some crossover, is all I can really say. I can’t really speak to that. I come in and out of it, sort of, but I’ve been involved in it for about 20 years -- I signed the deal in ’96! I think there’ll just be crossover and standalone. It’s just the right thing to do. The X-Menuniverse is every bit as big as the rest of the whole Marvel universe, so why not?

How has it felt being the cinematic custodian of the X-Men characters, and the extra meaning that they have with their outsider status and their persecuted status?

It’s being able to tell that story, over and over again, in different ways, different characters. I’ve been able to work with some of the best actors in the world, doing things they never thought they’d ever be doing, like flying on cables, and shaving their heads, and things like that.

For me personally, I was an adopted kid, an only child. A Jewish kid growing up in a Catholic neighborhood, a terrible student in school. I was always picked on. I always felt like an outsider. And to make a film, many films, about outsiders, and many comic book films, it’s been a thrill for me.

Directing for television, when you hit the ground running with theX-Menshow, what’s going to be the fun for you? What's the challenge?

Making my [production] day! It’s a whole different paradigm. It’s a whole different world. I started with Usual Suspects. I started with independent films. So I love to do pilots as a director, because it gives me a chance to make like a little indie without having to set up a whole independent film. Usually I’m making them in between big movies. So yeah, it’s a chance to get back to my roots. And if it takes off, like House, it allows you creative freedom.

Legionpremieres Wednesday, February 8 on FX.

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