Today, Fox made good on its promise to release the first official trailer for The Gifted, their latest addition to the interconnected X-Men universe that features everything from Logan to X-Men: Apocalypse (for good or ill). This series, which comes from Bryan Singer (who directed films like X-Men, X-Men: First Class, and the aforementioned X-Men: Apocalypse), Lauren Shuler Donner, and Simon Kinberg, who've produced everything in the X-Men Cinematic Universe since 2000. All of this means we could get something as impressive as FX's Legion... or as disappointing as X-Men: Apocalypse.
As seen in the above trailer, the series focuses on a group of mutants who seemingly have to escape a world that doesn't want to understand them. Its focus is on one particular family that has two "gifted" kids (i.e. kids with mutant abilities) and how they handle protecting their children. There are some new mutants introduced, as well as some questions about when in the X-Men universe this takes place, but judging from the fully-realized first trailer from the series, we have some things to digest.
In an effort to make consuming this new trailer and what it may mean for the future of the X-Men series, here's a rundown of everything you need to know about The Gifted, Fox's new Marvel series.
The Gifted is more connected to the X-Men movies than Legion was
As we found out earlier this year, Legion operated in its own universe independent from the larger X-Men universe. The Gifted will operate a little differently. Donner mentioned in January that The Gifted "is much more a part of just the world in terms of there are mutants, mutants are hated ... you feel like you're here in the X-Men world." You get that from the rip, with these kids already being chased for their powers, ala every X-Men movie that's ever been released.
Don't think that The Gifted will be as inclusive as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is in Marvel's Cinematic Universe, though, as Matt Nix (who created The Gifted) said this show is "designed to side-step questions like ‘Where is Wolverine?’ ... I didn’t want to do anything like ‘Wolverine is just offscreen!’ You know what I mean. So it exists in a world where those questions are answered without needing to name a lot of names or spend time dwelling on that issue."
Nix also made it clear that fans should expect X-Men to be featured in the series, although it remains to be seen who would be featured, and if this means characters from the movies will make appearances on the series.
There are some interesting X-Men connections to be made
Now this could all be speculation, but one of the announced characters is Lorna Dane, a.k.a. Polaris, who will be portrayed by Emma Dumont. She's a powerful mutant who can control magnetism... kind of like Magneto, who has been a staple throughout the X-Men film series. In the comics, Polaris has a complicated history with Magneto, with the question of the master of magnetism actually being her father having its own confusing history. That's not to say that we'll be seeing Sir Ian McKellen or Michael Fassbender appearing in the series, but there have to at least be some callbacks to Magneto... right?
Another interesting character in the series will be Clarice Fong, a.k.a. Blink, who will be portrayed by Jamie Chung. She has the power of teleportation, and was seen in X-Men: Days of Future Past (being portrayed by Fan Bingbing), and this version of Blink will be a younger Blink. Again, just an interesting thread, and able to happen considering that Days of Future Past found Blink being killed, but with the retcon at the end of the film, that reality must have been erased.
It's also been said that the Sentinels, who are robots designed to hunt mutants, will be featured in The Gifted, but are said to be "very different from what we've seen before." That aligns with the synopsis of the series, which says that this group of mutants is being hunted by 'a relentless government agency that tracks down mutants, the Sentinel Services."
The leads in the series are the parents
This series may be about the children with extraordinary abilities, but their parents—Stephen Moyer and Amy Acker—are said to be the "leads" in the series. They both get loads of screen time in the trailer as parents Reed and Caitlin Strucker who are dealing with their own internal issues—Reed is a district attorney who appears to get paid to send mutants away, while Caitlin is coping with her split from Reed as well as finding out that her two children, Lauren and Andy, are now manifesting new abilities.
The show low-key adds fuel to the Marvel/DC Comics beef
While a tiny piece of information, it looks like The Gifted (when it hits television) will air on Monday nights, which were previously occupied by DC's Gotham (which now moves to Thursdays). Trust, I'm gassing this just a bit, but it is an interesting thing to point out as Marvel and DC continue to cultivate their television properties over various channels; they are bound to butt heads.
As of this writing, there's no word on when The Gifted will air, nor do we know what's been completed aside from the pilot, but we will continue to keep you posted on what could be an intriguing addition to Fox's X-Men universe... or another Powerless, R.I.P.
