At San Diego Comic-Con 2017, OMFGTV had the opportunity to chat the cast of the upcoming Fox series “The Gifted” about the X-Men series and how the show is reinventing the franchise.
Stephen Moyer started things off previewing his character of Reed Strucker, a government lawyer who prosecutes mutants who have used their powers when mutant abilities are outlawed. “When my son’s mutant gene is activated,” Moyer said. “Our family is thrown into this kind of stasis because we never expected this to happen. It puts a bunch of pressure on the family and he has to turn his back on everything and go with his family.”
Moyer also detailed the world in “The Gifted” and how mutants are perceived. “The idea is that mutants are fine in society as long as they don’t use their mutant powers,” Moyer explained. “If they use their powers in some kind of destructive way, the government would try to take them out of society.”
“It’s a much more cat’s eye view of the world,” Moyer continued. “There’s no super suits, there’s no Charles’s school. It’s very much dirty and on the ground. I think the X-Men fans will love the ‘X’ aspect of it. But I don’t think you have to be an X-Men fan to enjoy it.”
Natalie Alyn Lind and Percy Hynes White, who play Lauren and Andy Strucker respectively, elaborated on the issues facing their characters as they discover their mutant powers. “My character is extremely afraid to tell her dad,” Lind said of Lauren’s struggle. “Because she doesn’t want him to see her as a weird girl and put her in jail.”
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“Andy’s kind of the reason the show happens,” Lind continued. “He kind of flips all of our worlds upside down and I have to go save him.” “She tries to guide me along the way,” White added.
Jamie Chung previewed her character of Blink and how this interpretation differs from Blink as seen in “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” “Everything is different in this interpretation,” Chung said. “Not only the universe, but also the characters. You’ll see throughout the series characters from the comics and also new ones. In ours, (Blink is) still figuring out her powers. It’s shameful to have mutant powers. She’s always been outcast, so she has kind of a bad attitude.”
Chung also detailed the different between the Blinks in terms of how they use their powers. “Fan Bingbing flicks her wrist and a portal opens and it’s so cool. Not that easy for our Blink. It’s psychically exhausting and it requires a lot of focus. She can’t go somewhere she’s never been before or that she can’t see.”
“In this world, using our powers is a physical sacrifice,” said Emma Dumont, who plays Polaris. “It’s not easy, it’s draining, it’s exhausting and it’s got to be worth it for whatever the goal is.” Dumont further detailed the underground mutant community that Polaris and Blink belong to. “The mutant underground is a big thing,” Dumont said. “There are many mutants, not everyone is in the mutant underground. Just like there were many mutants at Xavier’s school, not everyone was an X-Man. Thunderbird, Polaris and Eclipse save many mutants, but not everyone is Blink. There’s a very special reason they take Blink under their wing.”
“We’re going to see a lot of storylines between the two,” Chung said of Blink and Polaris’s relationship. “We’re both pretty similar characters,” Dumont added. “Polaris has been around these guys for so long. I think she just wants a friend to braid her hair. (Laughs)”
Speaking of hair, Dumont and Chung briefly commented on their comic book counterparts’ psychical attributes, namely Polaris’s green hair and Blink’s pink skin, and if fans will see these attributes on the show. “I think we’ll see green hair,” Dumont said with a smile. “We might have already seen it.” “Our Blink has just one birthmark,” Chung said. “Once her powers continue to grow, we’ll see those develop.”
“The Gifted” premieres October 2 at 9pm on Fox.