The Marvel Cinematic Universe may be expanding in some unexpected directions. If an item on Hollywood script tracking site It's On The Grid is to believed, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's bizarre Inhumans are on the development slate for a feature film adaptation. Marvel Studios is reportedly looking for writers now.Put overly simply, the Inhumans are a race of men, women and beasts whose ancestors were early homo-sapiens who were experimented upon by the Kree aliens. What uncommon traits these people gained as a consequence of those manipulations were compounded by exposure to the Terrigen Mist, which alters the genetic code of Inhumans and gives them powers and other variously useful or horrible things you get from superhero mutations. They live in the secret city of Attilan, which has existed in a number of exotic places including Atlantis and the Moon, and operate under a strict and peculiar feudal system ruled by King Black Bolt and the Inhuman Royal Family, whose trials and tribulations define the narrative thrust of the franchise. Black Bolt is especially cool because of his sweet black costume and the fact that he can't speak on account of his voice being so intense that it destroys everything within earshot, so he broods a lot.

Naturally, it's all infinitely more complicated than that.

The conventional wisdom has been that once Marvel Studios completes its mission to create franchises around all its major superheroes, the company will then pursue lesser known but similarly cool 'street-level' heroes; characters like Moon Knight and Luke Cage, who exist in modern, urban environments. The Inhumans news defies that, as the titular race of superpowered beings come from Marvel's cosmic stable.

According to Badass Digest, the current approach to an Inhumans movie deviates significantly from the mythology described above.

[The Inhumans are] aliens who were put on Earth as sleeper cell aliens to eventually call back their race to take over the planet. Ultimately, the group of aliens fully assimilates and don't want to cause war.

Certainly, this twist on the concept leaves something to be desired, but it's early yet and these things have the tendency to change (remember Superman Lives?). However, simplifying the Inhumans' origins on Earth would almost certainly be necessary for a film, given the uncommonly arcane and convoluted nature of the Inhumans comic book stories.

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