I think X-Men would be much better as a series for three main reasons:
1) The X-Men Mythos is expansive. There are easily 20-30 classic stories to tell and twist and flip, to say nothing of the 200+ named beloved mutants. An X-Men movie franchise simply can't capture the X-Men universe, it captures such a small sliver, it captures so few of the great stories, so few of the awesome characters, I can't imagine a lifelong fan of X-Men comics being anything close to satisfied. A TV show with ten seasons at least has a shot of doing justice to the world.
2) The X-Men is a soap opera. When you look at what makes the X-Men tick, what put their comic on top, it wasn't that they had bigger explosions than the Justice League or Avengers, it was those personal interactions. It's the love triangles and unrequited loves and sudden returns from the dead and oblique takes on contemporary issues. This kind of storytelling is what TV excels at.
3) The X-Men is an ongoing series, not an event book. Handling it as an ongoing series would naturally play to the strengths of the franchise, instead of forcing you to make a new franchise out of it, only tangentially related to the inspirations that have made it a household name.
I can understand some hesitance on what an X-Men TV show could be, but I'd offer a few counters to the popular idea:
Budget for Powers
- Mutant powers don't have to be used often for a show to be good. Many of the X-Men, like Cyclops are dedicated to *not* using their powers, or hiding them, like Angel has historically.
- What TV is capable of has increased significantly in the last several years. I understand that for some people 'Mutant X' is the height of television, however, for people who watch things like Game of Thrones, Falling Skies or even Heroes Reborn or The Flash, the idea of compelling super powers isn't so beyond the pale. Even certain super powers that were considered too expensive or difficult, like Angel's wings are now done with quality on low rent scifi television.
- It's okay to tone down people's powers. The 616 versions of the Avengers would handidly wipe the floor with the MCU versions. They have been severely depowered and it doesn't make them less heroic or less powerful.
- It's okay not to use powers all the time. Hulk generally has 12 minutes of Hulked out screen time... in a 120 movie starring Hulk, we only see Hulk for maybe 10% of the time. Iron Man may double that at best. Generally, these characters are only fighting a very small portion of the time.
- There are smart ways to have "short" fight scenes. While some of us may have a bad taste in our mouths from the way that fight scenes were handled in Heroes or Smallville, taking a more anime-inspired chess-match/collectible card game strategy approach could make tense standoffs really interesting.
- Many, MANY of the X-Men's powers are cheap for TV. Telepathy, teleportation, healing factors, telekinesis, phasing, super strength, prosthetic skin, energy blasts and more are done all the time on cheap TV. A big show on Netflix or a network station could o these things easily, and other more difficult powers with a bit of work.
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