Fox has tapped Kiss-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow to write the script for an adaptation of Marvel Comics’ X-Force as the studio makes plans to expand its X-Men movie franchise to include the supergroup created by Rob Liefeld that first appeared in New Mutants #100 in 1991, a debut that was followed by a first issue that sold a then record five million copies at the height of the comics boom.  Led by a mutant from the future (Cable), X-Force was more militant and agressive than the original X-Men with an edge that had considerable appeal in the early 90s, though the popularity of the title declined after Liefeld, who was one of the original Image Comics founders, left Marvel.
 
Speculation about an X-Force movie has been building over the past weeks as word leaked out that Fox had trademarked the X-Force name for the movies.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wadlow, whose Kick-Ass 2 debuts on August 16th, is writing the script with an eye to direct the X-Force movie.
 
Whether Wadlow does or does not end up directing X-Force may well depend on how well Kick-Ass 2 does at the box office, and of course the fate of the X-Force film itself is contingent to some degree on the box office performance of Fox’s The Wolverine, which debuts on July 26th.