Fox is bringing the X-Men universe to the small screen in the fall with The Gifted. Although it won't feature any of the characters who appear in the big screen X-Men ventures, the new series promises to bring plenty of mutant action. It will focus on one family as they find themselves suddenly immersed in the world of mutants, where nobody is ever truly safe. Showrunner Matt Nix has revealed the comic series that inspired the direction of The Gifted, saying this:
I looked a lot at some of the more obscure runs that didn't deal with the central superhero mythology. I loved District X, which was just about a district in New York. It's where the mutants are. You're following around Bishop, who's a cop. . . . The show is not a procedural at all, but it was seeing mutants in society, dealing with crime, drugs, their relationships to each other. We didn't take any characters from it. It was one of my favorites.
The District X comic series ran from May 2004 to June 2005 with a total of 14 issues, and it was definitely a procedural. Set in a town primarily populated by mutants, lead character Bishop investigated crimes committed by and against the mutants of the district. It certainly qualifies as one of the more obscure runs of Marvel Comics, although it certainly (and clearly) has a fanbase. Matt Nix's comments at the TCA press tour (via ComicBook.com) indicate that The Gifted will borrow the elements of District X that focused on mutants dealing with real-world problems as well as those that stem from possessing mutant powers in a culture without the X-Men and in which mutants are rounded up.
In the Gifted universe, the X-Men have gone missing, and it seems that the result will be a society in which the gifted become the hunted. From the footage we've seen so far, it's not clear just what happened to the X-Men or how mutants have become so persecuted, but it's likely that Matt Nix will reveal answers in time when the series kicks off this fall. While The Gifted won't revolve around the X-Men, it won't ignore them either.
From the sound of things, The Gifted won't need any X-Men. The show will follow a family that is forced to go on the run when two ordinary parents discover that their kids have manifested mutant powers. The discovery forces the father (played by True Blood's Stephen Moyer) to adjust his views on mutants as he and his family enter an underground network of mutants who work together to stay alive and fight back. The series also stars Amy Acker, Blair Redford, Jamie Chung, Natalie Alyn Lind, and Percy Hynes White.
The Gifted will premiere on Monday, October 2 at 9 p.m. ET on Fox. For all the other dates you'll need to know about what's coming on the small screen, swing by our fall TV premiere schedule.
