For the first time in a history that includes a schism of film rights and dueling stories, Marvel and Fox (the TV network) are giving us an X-Men television show — one that seems strikingly familiar.
On Sunday, Fox released a trailer for The Gifted, a story that’s officially set in the X-Men universe (the X-Men are actually name-checked in the trailer) and centers on two parents (played by Stephen Moyer and Amy Acker) who find out their children are “gifted” with mutant powers.
The twist: Moyer’s character, Reed, works for an organization that rounds up and seemingly neutralizes mutants, and now Reed and his family will have to work with mutants to make sure Reed’s own employer doesn’t catch his kids.
It’s eerily similar to the concept of NBC’s ill-fated Heroes, where one of the plots involved a father working for a clandestine organization that kept tabs on superhumans, who had to protect his superhuman daughter from said organization.
But for fans of the X-Men, there are a few things that jump out. At the beginning of the trailer, Reed is interrogating a mutant woman who is apparently Lorna Dane (he’s asked about “Lorna” at the end of the trailer and it flashes back to the woman from the beginning). She’s a mid-major character in the X-Men universe who has powers similar to Magneto, her biological father. We also see a glimpse of Blink (Jamie Chung), a character we saw in X-Men: Days of Future Past who has the ability to teleport by creating wormholes.
Bryan Singer, who directed the X-Men films X-Men, X2, and X-Men: Days of Future Past, has signed on to direct The Gifted.
The Gifted will air on Mondays this fall on Fox. A specific premiere date will be announced later this summer.
