SDCC 2017: The Gifted Extended Sneak Peek
20th Century Fox began creating stories in the X-men universe for television last year with the outstanding and surreal “Legion” on FX. This year they jump to a more mainstream appeal type of show with “The Gifted,” which will debut on Fox this Fall. At Comic Con this year, they brought a sneak peek clip of the upcoming show that laid out the premise, introduced a few characters, and created a good amount of intrigue for what is to come. While it was immediately clear that this isn’t going to be as ambitious as “Legion”, “The Gifted” has the right elements to be a success.
The entire cast of “The Gifted” at the panel
The clip shown at the panel brought the audience into the world that these mutants and humans are trying to co-inhabit. There is some kind of law that has made it so use of mutant powers or having the X-gene requires registration and can result in detention, so we immediately see characters running from and hiding from the police. Presumably, there is a mutant resistance movement, who have been forced underground and they are in the position of recruiting and breaking out those who are at risk of capture.
Simultaneously, there is a story of two young X-gene carriers whose father is a mutant prosecutor and a moment of intense stress leads to them finding out that they may have just revealed their secret. The clip left a lot of questions open for the series to spend answering: Will their father understand? Can they join the resistance? Will they be hunted by the Sentinels? Where are the X-men?
What was shown featured some quality acting and special effects as well as a promising story for a series that looks like it could be a lot of fun. The series writer and producer Matt Nix (“Burn Notice”), who was at the panel, was incredibly excited for the places this could go and the stories he wants to tell within the X-men framework. There is a good cast of young, younger, and a few solid hands like Amy Acker (“Dollhouse”) and Stephen Moyer (“True Blood”) who all really seem to enjoy their characters and spoke in length about the importance of getting it right. This is promising and I will be making an attempt to check it out when it comes out later this year.
