Mutant Fugitives: Looking ahead at Fox’s The Gifted

by Michael Harris

FOX is about to debut a brand new show revolving around the familiar X-Men concept of “a world who fears and hates them”; The Gifted.

The story of the X-Men, and of the Mutants, has a very established history going all the way back to Marvel’s “The X-Men” in 1963. Long before The Gifted. In the story, readers are introduced to Mutants; the next stage in humanity’s evolution. Endowed with special abilities like flight, telekinesis and optic laser blasts, these powers would reveal themselves during their already awkward teenage years. Coming together under the tutelage of a mentor, Charles Xavier, these first students became the X-Men. Heroes out to protect a world that hates and fears them. The team was based out of a school designed to teach and train generations of outcast mutants to lead the world and bring humans and mutants together.

Over the past fifty or so years plenty of stories would be told revolving around this basic concept in the comics, and an amazing animated series, also by Fox, back in 1992. But more recently, 20th Century Fox has brought the franchise to the big screen with not only X-Men films, but with “spin-offs” like Deadpool and Wolverine.

With the success of Fox’s Legion, another X related television series, Fox and Marvel are bringing viewers The Gifted.

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On The Run

In The Gifted, the story will focus on a family on the run from government agencies bent on rounding up mutants. Forced underground, they’ll have to team up with others to ensure their survival. It’s shaping up to be quite different from the film universe however. Where as in the films, the X-Men are front and center, The Gifted will focus on world around them, beneath the surface. On the ordinary children coming to grips with powers they barely control, and the resulting chaos it brings them and their families.

The cast right now is a mix of well known mutants from the pages of the comics themselves, to new characters designed solely for the series.

The Gifted

Daughter of X-Men villain Magneto, at least in the comics, is Lorna Dane/Polaris. Gifted with the power of magnetism, she has been a member of several of the X-Men teams. It’ll be interesting to see how much of the characters history will be included in this version. Also, where’s the green hair!?

The Gifted

Next up is Clarice Fong, aka Blink. Blinks ability is teleportation, not only for herself but for others by creating “portals”. Pretty useful, especially for a group on the run. This character also appeared in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but may not be the same version due to there being many different timelines in this universe.

Rounding out the established mutants is John Proudstar/Thunderbird. A mutant of Native American descent, he is also the leader of the underground community of mutants in hiding.

The Gifted

New Blood, Old Threats

Along with a few new mutants announced, such as Eclipse and Dreamer, two children just outed as mutants will be among the protagonists of this series.  Lauren and Andy Strucker will both discover the extent of their powers as the show moves forward. It will explore not only their place in this world, but the dynamic between the children and their parents. This is especially intriguing, as the fathers career involves jailing mutants.

And what would an ominous government agency tasked with rounding up renegade mutants be with out the Sentinels. These mutant hunting murderous robots have also been a thorn in mutants side almost since their very beginning, and will be seen in the show in some capacity.

The Gifted

Although it takes place in an established world, the X-Men proper will be noticeably absent. With the exception of some cameos, the producers have confirmed, this will largely take place without the major heavy hitters of the universe. In fact, it’s vague on whether they are even an active group at the moment. Keeping the series slightly separated from films. Ultimately giving both more creative leeway, without being burdened by the other.

I’ve got a list though of who I’d love to see!

As of now, the series is set to run for 10 episodes starting October 2nd, 2017 on Fox.

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