Marvel's The Gifted: Meet the X-Men Drama's Mutant, Human Characters

Meet the Characters of The Gifted

Fox's superhero series brings another side of the X-Men universe to the small screen through The Gifted's ensemble cast of humans and mutants. Ahead, creator Matt Nix and stars Stephen Moyer, Amy Acker, Sean Teale, and Emma Dumont preview what's to come for the characters.

Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer)

Strucker family patriarch Reed is a district attorney working on behalf of Sentinel Services, the government organization hunting down mutants, when he finds out his children are superhuman. Naturally, that puts him in a bit of a bind at the start of the series. "He’s hugely conflicted," Moyer says. "He’s been doing what he thinks is right. In our world, it’s not illegal to be a mutant, but it is illegal to use your powers in public. The thing that’s been gnawing away at him — probably for a few years — is brought into focus." He's devoted to his family, but he's also been devoted to his work, and he's never shied away from interrogating mutants for his job. "I have no issue with people finding him unheroic," the actor says. "I enjoy that element."

Caitlin Strucker (Amy Acker)

Caitlin Strucker is no shrinking violet. As Lauren and Andy's mother, Caitlin goes into full mama bear mode as soon as her children become targets of Sentinel Services, Acker says. Off-set, however, the brood has enjoyed actual leisure time instead of being constantly on the run. "The other day we were doing a scene with the family next to a laser tag place, so at lunch, we all got to have a family laser tag game," Acker recalls, laughing. "[The kids] beat us but I think they cheated a little." Of course, the actress admits it is a little strange to play a human for once, after roles on shows like Person of Interest that called for her to be, well, something more than human. "Stephen and I were laughing because we’re like, 'Neither of us have really ever played the straight people, you know?'" she says, referring to Moyer's previous role as the vampire Bill on True Blood. "I’m usually the one locked in a cage or something, and he was saying the same thing."

Lauren Strucker (Natalie Alyn Lind)

Nix explains that one of his goals for the series was to examine how mutant abilities develop based on the character's personality, and the teen Struckers gave him the perfect opportunity to dive into the life of young mutants just like the ones who would have attended Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters if the X-Men were still around. Lauren, the seemingly perfect and put-together elder Strucker child, can create force fields. "Something we explored that’s harder to explore in the movies is the idea of powers evolving with your emotional life," he explains. "I liked the idea of Lauren having this power of pushing things together. What was interesting for the kids was not to just sit down and define their powers, like, 'Oh, Lauren makes shields.' Instead, it's, 'If this 17-year-old is trying to hide who she is and wants to protect herself from the world, the way that we could show that is with shields.' If she were another person, if she were somewhere else emotionally, maybe it wouldn't have been shields."

Andy Strucker (Percy Hynes White)

Andy, who discovers his powers in the pilot, is another character building on the idea that powers are affected by your emotions and personality. For now, the younger Strucker's ability appears to be a form of telekinesis opposite of his sister's, in that he can push things apart. But, Nix points out, he'll have to figure out exactly what he can do as the series goes on. "In reality, if you think about it, if you got mutant powers tomorrow, a mutant fairy doesn't show up on your shoulder and tell you what you have," he explains. "Like, you looked at the flowerpot, and it broke. Do you have blinking powers? Do you have flowerpot powers? What do you have? You don’t know that until you develop it." Finally, though Lauren and Andy may not be X-Men, there may be a deeper comic-book connection between their family and stories that have appeared in print, a connection that some astute comics readers may have already picked up on. "All I can say is if you’re naming a show like this, you don’t name a family 'Strucker' by accident," Nix teases. "I didn’t accidentally pluck that out of the air." Any guesses?

Marcos Diaz a.k.a. Eclipse (Sean Teale)

The Struckers aren't the only ones with potential comic-book connections. Eclipse, a mutant helping to organize the Underground Railroad-type movement ushering mutants to safety away from Sentinel Services and who's able to manipulate photons and light, may also have deeper roots in the comics' mythology. "Somewhere down the line," Teale teases, "there may be a familial connection to a character from the comics."

But at the top of the series, even Eclipse doesn't fully understand his history. "He’s a boy that at a very young age is kicked out of the home," Teale explains. "He was from a wealthy family but was forced to live in a cardboard box in Colombia, and to survive, he had to do a lot of things he isn’t proud of... He’s searching for family, he’s searching for a place to belong and for the right to be a mutant. It’s quite hard to find that. He’s trying to do what’s right." That's not easy to do, because...

Lorna Dane a.k.a. Polaris (Emma Dumont)

...Eclipse happens to be romantically involved with Polaris, who is far more headstrong about their Underground Railroad movement to save mutants than he is. Polaris can control magnetism and therefore metal — just like Magneto, her father in the comics. "She's difficult, and she has some family drama," Dumont says, adding that she found it easy to relate to Polaris given their similarities. "We're both passionate and we both think we know what's right and wrong. And maybe sometimes we can both be a little bit bossy."

John Proudstar a.k.a. Thunderbird (Blair Redford)

According to Teale, Eclipse is pulled in two directions, between love and logic. Polaris represents the former, and Thunderbird the latter. A Native American and former Marine who's super-strong and capable of tracking other mutants, Thunderbird serves as the de facto leader of the mutant movement and is very close to both Eclipse and Polaris — though that can sometimes lead to conflict within the group. "Thunderbird inherently wants to do good and so does Eclipse, and Polaris to some degree might want to do the emotionally satisfying thing, and Eclipse gets torn between the two of those things," Teale says. "There's a fun dynamic between the three of them. They’re very close and they’re best friends."

Clarice Fong a.k.a. Blink (Jamie Chung)

X-Men fans will remember seeing Blink on the big screen in Days of Future Past, played by Fan BingBing. Here, she's an alternate version of the portal-creating mutant, one who appears to still be developing her powers. Plus, at the start of the series, she's on the run before being found by Thunderbird, Eclipse, and Polaris. Adding her to the cast of characters, Nix says, helps anchor The Gifted to the larger X-verse. "I like the idea of a mix of characters who are familiar to the fans, so we’re not going in and saying, 'This has nothing to do with anything,'" he says. "[I thought about] what I was excited about as a fan, and I would be excited about seeing someone I've seen in the movies. I think it sends a message."

Jace Turner (Coby Bell)

Hunting both these families is Agent Turner of Sentinel Services, who Nix says is more than just a villain hoping to round up every last superpowered human. After all, Turner embodies our present-day debate over immigration and border control. "Agent Turner chases mutants, but there are mutants who are dangerous," he says. "The question is, how many rights do we legitimately take away from everyone in order to protect some interests? Maybe the answer shouldn’t be 'nothing,' and it shouldn’t be 'everyone can do whatever they want,' but neither should the answer be 'let’s lock them all away because someday they could conceivably be dangerous.' Neither one of those is a legitimate answer, so that’s the balance that we’re striking."

The Gifted premieres Monday, Oct. 2, at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.