With shows like The Gifted and Legion gaining their respective fans, the shows are proving there is a place for live action X-Men dramas outside of the world of cinema. Polaris actress Emma Dumont took things a bit further, and stated recently that television isn't just a place where the X-Men can exist, it's the perfect place for it to do so. Dumont explained the difference between telling tales on film vs television, and how television taps into lesser stories of the franchise below:
Yeah, I think TV is the perfect place for the X-Men universe. The films are great. I'm a big fan of the films, we all are, but that's on a really large scale, so we want to see how these things affect everyday people. I mean, families being split apart, you know that's happening right now and people don't get to see that every day. Unfortunately, some people have to live it every day, but the people who don't get to see it, see it on our show.
Emma Dumont believes that shows like The Gifted are able to tell tales on a small scale, that draw parallels to struggles people face in everyday life. While not everyone can relate to the fictional event where Apocalypse reigned down terror on the world and almost changed life as we know it, someone might be familiar with a situation in which families are being ripped apart. Obviously, Dumont was alluding to stories with a more political spin in her conversation with Uproxx, but her point regarding X-Men television shows' abilities to focus on different types of stories is valid. That, along with the strong response from fans, is just one reason why the X-Men are right for the small screen.
While currently grounded, these stories might get the ability to become more grandiose thanks to the merger of Disney and Fox. With the X-Men franchise fully reunited, more obscure characters will undoubtedly work their way into The Gifted and Legion, and its possible bigger names could find their way in there as well. That said, Fox already had the rights to at least two major players who could appear in The Gifted and Legion, so it's not as though they couldn't have worked something out prior to the merger. If nothing else, Disney has a good track record of going up to bat for its franchises, so it's always possible The Gifted could benefit from the potential deal.
The Gifted returns to Fox Monday, January 1 at 9:00 p.m. ET. For a look at some other shows that will be popping back on television or premiering for the first time in 2018, head on over to our midseason premiere guide. Those still clinging on to 2017 for dear life still have a couple days worth of television to check out on our fall premiere guide. For a look at the shows this past year that tried to make it to next season and didn't quite make the cut, be sure to visit our cancellation guide for the low down as to what happened.
