4) X-Force
From the Comics: Originally the junior varsity version of the X-Men called the New Mutants, the team became X-Force when they were recruited by the mysterious mutant cyborg Cable. Cable, being from a horrible future where Apocalypse ruled the world, believes that if the X-teams are going to be successful in protecting humanity, then they have to be more militant and proactive in dealing with threats. Amongst Cable’s initial teammates are Cannonball, Boomer, Domino, Feral, Warpath and Shatterstar.
Connection to the Film Series: There’s a small, but potent connection to X-Force already in play in the X-Men film series and that’s Deadpool. The so-called Merc with a Mouth made his first appearance in a New Mutants comic just before the book switched over to being X-Force, and over the years he’s been a frequent guest star, teaming up with Cable, and, at one point, actually joining the team. If Deadpool’s a success then it’s likely that other characters that share his history will be mined by Fox and pressed into service for more box office dollars.
Adaptation: In the wake of a new threat from the Mutant Liberation Front, the mysterious Cable puts together a team of young mutants and trains them to be a more militaristic X-Men. Think of Cable as Clint Eastwood with a robotic eye and arm, a Dirty Harry from the future that shoots first and asks questions later. More recent issues of X-Force recast the team as the Black Ops division of the X-Men, who took missions requiring covert action with extreme severity and was comprised of characters like Wolverine, Psylocke and Archangel, who are all (with the possible exception of Wolverine) appearing in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Why is This Familiar? Kick-Ass 2 writer and director Jeff Wadlow was hired by 20th Century Fox to make an X-Force movie in 2013. The last bit of news about it came last December, when we heard that both Cable and Deadpool were going to appear in the film.