‘The Gifted’: Reed Getting New Powers Will Be “Very Bad News”

The first season of FOX’s X-Men series The Gifted teased the sordid family history of the Strucker family and their relationship to a pair of infamous supervillains. And that connection is going to play a major role in Season 2 as one of the main characters manifests new superpowers.

Actor Stephen Moyer and show runner Matt Nix spoke with TV Guide about the new season of The Gifted, and how Moyer’s character Reed Strucker will develop mutant abilities that will do more harm than good.

Reed is the father of siblings Lauren and Andy Strucker, who have a pair of powers that can be very destructive when they interact. While investigating his own past, Reed learned from his father that he has the X-Gene as well, but that his father experimented on him when was a child and effectively suppressed his mutant powers.

“I look back at my past, and I look at my father’s notes, and I basically try to see who I could have been before, and that’s how maybe things start to happen,” Moyer said, teasing that his powers could be similar to those of his children, “It’s in the family.”

Andy and Lauren’s powers are the same as the telekineses and molecular manipulating abilities as Andrea and Andreas von Strucker AKA Fenris. In Marvel Comics, they are terrorists and the children of HYDRA boss Baron von Strucker, but in The Gifted universe the Strucker kids are descendants of their line.

Knowing that Reed will likely have similar abilities as his children, they won’t be very useful in his quest to aid the Mutant Underground.

“Reed’s had powers suppressed for 30-something years,” show runner Nix said. “So when they come along, it’s a rough ride. It’s a very, very rough ride. It’s not like he’s suddenly a super hero. And one of the things we think about a lot is how are these powers hooked into someone’s emotional life, and Reed’s a pretty repressed guy. So powers showing up for Reed is not good news. It’s very, very bad news.”

We’ll see if Reed can work to hone his abilities without the aid of Polaris, who used to help train the younger mutants but has since joined the Hellfire Club.

The Gifted Season Two premieres Tuesday, September 25th on FOX.