‘The Gifted’ X-Men Connection Will Be Explored in the Season 1 Finale

X-Men fans should expect big things from the two-hour season finale of The Gifted.

Earlier in the show’s first season, a scene revealed that the X-Men had chosen Thunderbird to help lead the Mutant Underground, confirming that the Mutant Underground wasn’t just a separate organization with similar goals, but a group that was seemingly put in place for a purpose just before the X-Men disappeared.

ComicBook.com spoke with The Gifted star Emma Dumont, who plays Polaris, the founder of the Mutant Underground’s Atlanta cell, and asked if this was a mystery that would be further addressed this season or if eager fans would have to wait until further down the road (assuming The Gifted is renewed). Dumont had good news.

“That’s definitely something for this season,” she said. “It’s actually something for the finale. Yeah, the X-Men, for many episodes we kept saying, ‘The X-Men chose us, the X-Men chose us.’ We find out now, the X-Men specifically chose Lorna and Johnny, Thunderbird and Polaris. They chose them. I don’t know if it’s because of their lineage, or if they have had their powers for a long time. You know, yeah, maybe their family histories, I’m not sure, but they chose them for some reason. Thunderbird had an easy time with it. He accepted the role of leader. He’s from the military, he knows what it’s like to lead, he knows what it’s like to save lives.”

The burden of leadership weighs heavier or Lorna, as Dumont explained.

“Lorna, however, had spent her whole life being shamed, being told she was different, or bad, in many different ways,” she said. “She has a mental illness, she has a hard time with authority, she’s a mutant, she’s all these things that are bad, no, wrong. Her father abandoned her, and her parents passed, her foster family abandoned her. There was so much she was shamed for, so it was harder for her to accept a leadership position, and we kind of see more of that towards the end of the season, which is really cool.”

The Gifted will have a two-part finale airing in a single two-hour block on January 15, 2018.

The Gifted airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.