Fox has made it official, handing its first drama pilot order of the season to an X-Men-themed Marvel action-adventure drama from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix, 20th Century Fox Television and Marvel Television.

.

The project, which is untitled, had been a standout. Early versions of the script by Nix had been received enthusiastically at Fox and the producing studios, with a formal pilot green light contingent upon delivery of the final draft. Exploratory casting already had begun, with the process expected to ramp up now that there is an official pilot order.

The drama, which had a put pilot commitment, focuses on two ordinary parents who discover that their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive. The show appears particularly timely, dealing with the plight of minorities in society where there might not be enough tolerance for them.

Primetime-Panic Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders See All

Nix exec produced with Bryan Singer, Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg key auspices of the X-Men feature franchise, as well as Marvel’s Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory.

Fox, whose sister feature studio had been licensing rights to the X-Men characters through a deal with pre-Disney Marvel, would be a rare network that features both Marvel and DC series. The network has on the air Batman prequel series Gotham and fellow DC drama Lucifer, along with the high-profile DC drama project Black Lightning in development with a big commitment. A pilot pickup for the Marvel show does not impact the chances of Black Lightning, the network’s entertainment president David Madden told Deadline two weeks ago.

Fox sister cable network, FX, has upcoming X-Men-themed Marvel drama series Legion, also executive produced by Singer, Shuler Donner and Kinberg.