LOS ANGELES — Fox is closing in on a deal to bring the X-Men to television.

"We're in negotiations with Marvel. We're hopeful we'll be able to announce something soon," Fox chairman Dana Walden told reporters Thursday. "We're not closed on a deal yet."

The deal is, of course, a tricky one. 20th Century Fox controls the film rights to the franchise, but the comic remains in the hands of Marvel, who has its TV properties on ABC, with Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter; and Netflix, with Daredevil.

But Walden said the characters from the X-Men film franchise will be at their disposal, and the show "won't be including Marvel characters that are at ABC with Disney."

That includes the Avengers and their surrounding characters.

"This will be exclusively the franchise as it has existed at Fox," Walden said.

TVInsider first reported the series was in the works back in January.

While Fox has been in the limited series game as of late, Walden said the intention is to position X-Men as a " long-running" series.

Fox's pursuit of X-Men comes as superheroes can be found everywhere on TV.

The aforementioned Marvel/ABC (and Netflix) shows head into their third and second seasons, respectively. Over at CW, three superhero shows (Arrow, Flash and Legends of Tomorrow) will be occupying time slots this year. And CBS is getting ready to roll out Supergirl in September.

Fox is also home to hero-adjacent origin tale Gotham.