Marvel's Avi Arad said that Mutant X, the
upcoming live-action television series, will take a
different approach to genetics and mutation than Marvel has
done in the past.<br><br>The series, being syndicated
by Tribune Entertainment, deals with a group of
people who were part of a Genome Project that ultimately
goes wrong. These man-made mutants find themselves on
the run from the government agency that initiated the
project.<br><br>"It's definitely not the X-Men," said Arad, who will be
executive producer. "It's about genome technology. It's a
whole new universe of mutants. You look at the show and
think about it, that 20 years ago they were
experimenting on babies, with DNA, and to make all kids with
blue eyes, all kids tall, this sort of
thing.<br><br>"Now, there is a product recall. These babies are 18,
20, 25 and so on. They know they are different. They
were born different. Many of them were changed in the
embryo stage or even pre-embryo.<br><br>"It's more like
The Fugitive. It's not like the world is against them
because the world is really unaware that they
exist."<br><br>Arad said it is important that the writing of Mutant X
is developed with a serious tone.<br><br>"This is
based on potentially real issues," he said. "I thought
it was time to develop another universe that is sort
of into the next millennium that in some ways does
exist. I've seen experiments on human tissue that are
pretty scary stuff.<br><br>"You would be amazed at
what's going on. I have friends, a woman who couldn't
have kids. There is an adoption center in Los Angeles
where you take a woman and a man - the egg and a seed -
and put it in another woman. Surrogate parents. It's
very popular today, with legal papers. And I have a
friend who has two kids like that. One looks like him
and one looks like her. It's an amazing
thing."<br><br>Arad, who created the concept with Rick Ungar, said the
series was originally called Genome X.<br><br>"The thing
that prompted me was that it was the right time to do
it," Arad said. "You could not open the newspaper
without genome mapping or genome testing. Once you can
look at it and understand it, it's like rearranging
tiles. It's as simple as that."<br><br>Fox and Marvel
currently have litigation concerning Mutant X's alleged
ties to the X-Men franchise. While Arad said he can't
get into any legal details, he stressed that Mutant X
was not an X-Men spin-off.<br><br>"It is absolutely
not a spin-off," he said. "There's no reason to do a
spin-off."<br><br>Production of Mutant X will take place in Toronto, possibly
starting next month.