On FX, the trippy ‘Legion’, created by Noah Hawley has become a critical and fan favorite. Now FOX is hoping to score another hit with a series based on the X-Men. This new series, created by Matt Nix (‘Burn Notice’) is moving forward, with ‘X-Men’ film director Bryan Singer helming the pilot episode. Lauren Shuler Donner, who has also produced the films, is on board as an executive producer on Nix’s series, which now has a title: ‘Gifted’.
The term should be familiar to fans of the comics, as the super heroic X-Men moonlight as students and teachers at Xavier’s School For “Gifted” Students, a euphemism, referring to their mutant powers.
Shuler Donner tweeted a photo of the cast as gathered to read through the pilot’s script:
Cast reading of “Gifted” #Gifted pic.twitter.com/fQGgfoqZrl
— Lauren Shuler Donner (@ShuDonner) March 11, 2017
The show centers on a human couple, Reed and Kate Stewart, played by ‘True Blood”s Stephen Moyer and ‘Angel”s Amy Acker, who are attempting to protect their children, who are developing mutant powers, from the government. Natalie Alyn Lind, star of the sitcom ‘The Goldbergs’ and Silver St. Cloud on ‘Gotham’ plays their daughter Lauren.
Blair Redford (right), perhaps best known for the series ‘Switched At Birth’, plays “the strong-headed Native American leader of the underground network” of mutants. This sounds a little like the Morlocks from the comics, but that name isn’t mentioned. There are two major Native American mutants in X-Men lore, the brothers John and James Proudstar, both of whom operated under the codename Thunderbird (John died in action, James later adopted the name Warpath). But Redford’s character is named Sam, so he may have no relation to those characters.
Sean Teale, star of the short-lived Syfy series ‘Incorporated’ plays a new character named Eclipse a.k.a. Marcos Diaz.
Coby Bell previously worked with Nix on ‘Burn Notice’ and also starred on the long-running series ‘Thirdwatch’. He plays Jace Turner, another original character that is described as “a weathered man who quietly wrestles with the moral ambiguities of a job that regularly requires cold-blooded, calculating efficiency on a day-to-day basis.”
Though it appears that most of the cast will be comprised of original characters, there are a couple of throw-backs to the comics. As previously reported, another ‘Gotham’ cast member, Jamie Chung has been cast as Blink/Clarice Ferguson, the teleporting mutant played by Bingbing Fan in ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. Chung has quite a history with genre fiction, having also played Mulan on ‘Once Upon A Time’ and voicing Go Go Tamago in the ‘Big Hero 6’ movie and TV show.
On the show:
“Clarice’s naturally strong exuberance has taken a hit after a sudden and traumatic upheaval of her life. As she adjusts to the new people and places that are suddenly “home,” she is slowly becoming herself again.”
And finally, ‘Aquarius’ and ‘Bunheads’ star Emma Dumont has been cast as Lorna Dane/Polaris, a fan favorite character with magnetic powers who may or may not be Magneto’s daughter.
Also part of the cast are Joseph Morgan from ‘The Originals’ and young actor Percy Hynes White, who plays a character named Andy.
FOX ordered ‘Gifted’ directly to series, so it is highly likely to hit the air this fall. The pilot is slated to begin filming this month.
Are you excited to see an ‘X-Men’ based show coming to FOX? Does the inclusion of fan favorites like Blink and Polaris make you more excited? Do you think ‘Gifted’ could rival ‘Legion’?
