The Gifted Will Treat The X-Men Like 'Mythology'

Although the X-Men won't be on Bryan Singer's new Fox series The Gifted, they'll still be a part of the world.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour, showrunner Matt Nix addressed how the show will build on the legacy of the X-Men, clarifying earlier reports that The Gifted wouldn't cross over with the films and other TV shows. 

"In our world, one of the things we'll be unpacking is the specific relationship of this group of characters to the X-Men," Nix said, as reported by Variety. "It's in the trailer that the X-Men are gone. And that's not a dodge, like 'The X-Men are gone and we're never going to mention them again!' We're going to be exploring it. It's a huge deal to these guys. It's a huge deal in the world. It's one of the central mysteries of the show."

The Gifted stars Amy Acker and Stephen Moyer as parents of children who start to develop powerful mutant abilities, and follows their story as they flee from the government to keep their children safe with the help of an underground mutant collective. 

Much like the the X-Men-adjacent series Legion on FX, it sounds like The Gifted will definitely be a part of the broader X-Men universe, but the focus of the connections will likely concern the shared lore. "There's a whole sort of historical mythology," Nix said. "There's not going to be a situation where the television show is driving the movies or the movies are driving the television show, because the mythology that we're telling specifically avoids that. But it doesn't avoid that by pretending the X-Men don't exist or there just doing stuff over and no one pays any attention." 

The series premieres Oct. 2 on Fox, and it's never been a better time to be an X-Men fan. Find out which big star recently signed on to be in X-Men: Dark Phoenix.