Rumors of the an X-Men spin-off began a couple of months ago when Fox studios registered the domain X-Forcemovie.com. Now, it has been officially confirmed that X-Force is in the works, with Kick-Ass 2 writer/director Jeff Wadlow writing the script and possibly directing, while X-Men franchise producer Laura Shuler Donner oversees the project. 

The film will be based off of Rob Liefeld’s record-breaking 1990s comic and will feature a few characters from the first Uncanny X-Men spin-off, The New Mutants, which told the story of teenage mutants going into adulthood. One of the characters that appears in the series is militant leader Cable, a relative of Cyclops and Jean Grey from the future. Aside from his body being enhanced by robotics, he also possesses telekinetic powers and eventually becomes the leader of of the superhuman team. There has also been speculation that Warpath, a mutant with superhuman strength and speed and once a member of the X-Force team, could possibly make a scene in the pic seeing as how he will be featured in Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. 

The project sounds like it certainly fits with what is gradually becoming a unified X-Men movie universe. X-Men: Days of Future Past will employ actors like Anna Paquin and Ian McKellen from the first X-Men movies alongside returners from X-Men: First Class. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has already appeared in both, although his role in First Class was limited to a short single-scene callback, and didn’t factor into the film’s plot. The comic book origins of the New Mutants fit well with Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, featured prominently in X-Men and X2. That said, we wouldn’t be surprised to see X-Force function as separate entity, either, to avoid complications dictated by fitting with an established fiction.

There is no news yet of a possible release date, but anticipation will surely grow after the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past, set to open on May 23, 2014.