FOX’s ‘The Gifted’ Could Be the X-Men Series You’ve Always Wanted

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Riding high on the success of Legion, FOX/Marvel look poised to strike again with The Gifted. First-look footage screened at Comic-Con reveals another confident, compelling take on the X-Men universe.

What is The Gifted about?

The Gifted tells the story of a suburban couple whose ordinary lives are rocked by the sudden discovery that their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive.

The series stars Stephen Moyer (Reed Strucker), Amy Acker (Kate Strucker), Sean Teale (Eclipse), Jamie Chung (Blink), Coby Bell (Jace Turner), Emma Dumont (Polaris), Blair Redford (Thunderbird), Natalie Alyn Lind (Lauren Strucker), and Percy Hynes White (Andy Strucker).

The Gifted trusts the viewer and delivers where it counts.

FOX screened three scenes from the series for fans, each revealing a confidently-written series that trusts the audience to grasp the goings-on. Unlike the footage shown from Marvel’s Inhumans on Thursday, The Gifted moves briskly without getting bogged down in stagey soliloquies or expository dialogue.

The Gifted feels like it has all the spectacle of X-Men movies, with an intimate warmth that’s unique to this particular stream of the broader mutant story.

One scene has Jamie Cheung’s Blink on the run from the cops after escaping the Mutant Detention Center. A group of mutants befriend her and offer to help her. The group is approached by police which leads to a confrontation in which we see an impressive display of mutant powers.

The visual effects used to bring the mutant powers to life aren’t done on the cheap. There’s less bombastic action than the movies, but it’s all done with excellence.

If The Gifted clips screened at San Diego Comic-Con are any indication, it could be everything you’ve always wanted from an X-Men series.

We’ll know for sure when the anticipated superhero series premieres this September on FOX.

brianonthescreen
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