Fans have speculated that the 'X' in the show's title may have been taken directly from Howard Mackie's "Mutant X" comic books, which in turn had an 'X' because they were related to the X-Men universe. Originally, The 'X' in X-Men stood for the mutants' X-tra special abilities, and later for the unique "X factor" in their DNA that gave them their special powers.There is some evidence to the contrary, however. Mutant X's executive producer Rick Ungar stated in a 2000 interview that the Marvel production team that was responsible for developing the television show forgot that there was already a Mutant X comic book in existence when theychanged the name of the series from "Genome X" to Mutant X to be more descriptive:
The original working name was Genome X, but we all kind of decided that didn`t tell ya anything," Ungar explained. "Interestingly enough, when we came up with the title Mutant X for this show, we actually had forgotten - or at least I had - we had a comic called Mutant X. It was helpful that we already owned the title, needless to say, but that`s kind of where any similarities end. This show really has no relationship to the X-Men, or anything that`s existed in the Marvel Universe before. It`s brand spankin` new."
Thus, the "X" in the show's title may merely be a remnant of the show's initial Genome X title.
