The Gifted Will Explore Why The X-Men Are No More

While Fox's upcoming television series The Gifted isn't part of a shared universe with the X-Men movies, the show does take place in the same general world where mutants and the X-Men exist, but with a twist. The X-Men are gone and now we know that the lack of the heroic team is one of the main mysteries of the series.

At the Television Critics Association summer press tour Tuesday, showrunner Matt Nix explained that while the events of the movies aren't a direct tie, the X-Men are a huge component of the show.

"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. "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."

Nix also explained how the show, which features mutants Blink, Polaris, Thunderbird and series-exclusive character, Eclipse, in the main cast, connects to the X-Men cinematic universe.

"There's a whole sort of historical mythology," he 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 Gifted follows a family who goes on the run after discovering that their children have mutant abilities. The series will premiere Monday, October 2 on Fox.