THE GIFTED Who’s Who

Fox’s X-Men franchise evolves into a new television series.

THE GIFTED introduces new mutants and classic heroes from comic books.

The Gifted courtesy Fox and Marvel

A family goes on the run when two teens manifest mutant powers and find refuge among some characters with familiar names to X-fans. Marvel shared new looks at these heroes.

Who’s who on THE GIFTED? What are their comic book origins?

When Andy and Lauren Strucker unleash mutant abilities – they become targets. They are the children of an attorney who appears to prosecute arrested mutants. Andy appears to have telekinetic powers. Lauren creates force fields. These characters don’t appear in the comics.

Eclipse/Marco Diaz is a brand new character created for the series. Eclipse can emit light from his body from blinding lights, signals and blasts of energy.

Thunderbird/John Proudstar is the super strong leader of underground mutants who take in the Strucker family. In comics John was a member of the second generation of Uncanny X-Men created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. This Native American mutant with super strength, stamina and sense died on an early mission with the team. John’s brother James (with similar mutant powers) took his sibling’s code-name but started out as a villain. James blamed Professor Xavier for his brother’s death. Thunderbird’s hunger for revenge led to him to join the Hellfire Club’s Hellions. James later took the name Warpath and join X-Force and X-Men. Warpath appeared in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. No word on how the new series will tie into the film franchise. Will television follow comics history and is Thunderbird doomed leading to the rise of Warpath?

Blink/Clarice is a teleporter. The character was seen in the X-MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST film. Blink was one of the young mutants hunted by aliens known as the Phalanx. Blink died on a mission against the alien hunters while the survivors became known as Generation X. Blink’s legacy continued. Claire turned up again in the Age of Apocalypse alternate timeline and later led Exiles, a team of mutants taken from different realities.

Polaris/Lorna Dane is the green haired mistress of magnetism. Lorna has been the on-again, off-again girlfriend of Havok/Alex Summers and the daughter of Magneto. Lorna has been a member of the X-Men, X-Factor and once led the villains known as The Marauders when she was possessed by a psychic entity named Malice.

THE GIFTED was written by Matt Nix, directed by X-Men film director Bryan Singer.  The producing team marks the second collaboration between the X-Men film franchise team and Marvel Television Studios.

The cast includes Stephen Moyer and Amy Acker as the Strucker parents.

Natalie Alyn Lind and Percy Hynes White are Lauren and Andy Strucker.

Sean Teale is Eclipse.

Jamie Chung is Blink

Coby Bell is an officer of Sentinel Services, a secret government police unit hunting mutants.

Emma Dumont is Polaris

Blair Redford is Thunderbird.

THE GIFTED airs Mondays on Fox.

By Editor