The debut of the X-Force in the second season of X-Men ’97 has renewed fan interest in a live-action film that never made it to theaters. While viewers are now seeing Cable assemble the famous Marvel Comics team in the animated Disney+ series, Liefeld recently revealed new details about the abandoned Fox project.
Liefeld shared on social media that the live-action X-Force movie had been in development before it was ultimately dropped by Fox. According to the creator, the movie had already been written by Drew Goddard and would have featured the supervillain Stryfe, Cable's arch-nemesis from the comic books.
The comments came after a fan posted that they hoped Marvel Studios would eventually release an X-Force movie on X. Liefeld responded by claiming that the film was blocked after the studio's president, Kevin Feige, took control of the X-Men franchise following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox. However, he also implied that several other MCU projects moved forward despite the cancelation of his X-Force film.
When other fans of the iconic Marvel mutant team asked how far along the project was before it was dropped, Liefeld stated that Goddard had completed the script. He added that several elements of the film have already been confirmed. He also said that Fox still owned the X-Men film rights during the time of development and that Goddard was also supposed to direct the movie.
The creator's statements line up with reports about the film all the way back on September 7, 2017, when Deadline revealed that Fox had hired Drew Goddard to write and direct X-Force. At the time, the movie was initially supposed to focus on Deadpool and Cable, who form a more morally questionable interaction of the team. Ryan Reynolds, Simon Kinberg, and Lauren Shuler Donner were all listed as producers for the scrapped film.
Liefeld co-created the X-Force with comic book writer Fabian Nicieza in 1991. The team's first appearance was in The New Mutants #100. Cable served as the original leader of the team. Unlike the X-Men, members of X-Force are significantly more aggressive and often use methods that were far more violent than they needed to be when dealing with threats.
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The X-Force's popularity led to the team getting its own solo ongoing series. Liefeld's run on the series lasted for 12 issues before he left Marvel Comics and co-founded Image Comics (a creator-owned publisher). The artist's fellow founders include several other comic book icons, including Erik Larsen, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino.
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