The multimillion-dollar X-Men franchise looks set to mutate with the news that Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz is in talks to write a new film based on the series' younger characters.

According to Variety, X-Men: First Class is expected to feature the teenage students of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, the school founded by Professor Charles Xavier where mutants learn to understand and control their superpowers.

Schwartz, whose soap opera about a bunch of privileged teens at an elite New York City private school is one of the most watched on US television, was also offered the director's role on the film but has so far declined. The movie would most likely feature characters such as Iceman, Rogue, Angel, Colossus, Jubilee and Shadowcat (aka Kitty Pryde), who have appeared in the franchise's previous films.

The most recent X-Men film was Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand, which took $459m (£305m) around the globe in 2006. Its huge success has seen a number of spin-off projects considered or greenlit - first up is X-Men Origins: Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman, which arrives in cinemas next May. Twentieth Century Fox is also developing a film based on the villain Magneto, played by Ian McKellen in the original films, while a Deadpool spin-off, based on a character played by Ryan Reynolds in the Wolverine film, is also being considered.