The Gifted Star Clarifies Show’s X-Men Timeline

While the live-action X-Men universe has made a significant number of films, it is beginning to enter the television market. Following the critical success of FX‘s Legion, the next X-Men television series, The Gifted, is set to debut this fall.

But with the film side of the X-Men universe spanning from the 1970s to the 2020s, many are wondering where The Gifted falls on that timeline. According to one of the series’ stars, Stephen Moyer, it’s not as cut-and-dry as fans would expect. During a recent interview with CTV, Moyer revealed that there isn’t really a consistent timeline between the television and film properties.

“In terms of timeline, because obviously we just had Logan which was a lot further forward and obviously Legion which is a lot further back. So we definitely slot into a timeline, but as of yet, we’re not allied. I think they have given themselves a lot of leeway in order to be able to go places, but we’ve enough story within our universe to propel us forward without having to do that.”

As Moyer explained, the large number of recognizable characters from the X-Men lore gives the different properties – including The Gifted – a wide net of inspiration.

“Within the X-Men Films, we’re sort of not allied to them or positioned within that. There are obviously mutant characters that have a place in the comic books. Some of them are different, some of them are sort of related in some way.”

The Gifted will air Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Fox beginning in the fall.

MORE X-MEN TV SHOW NEWS: The Gifted Full Trailer / First The Gifted Production Image Revealed / New Casting Call Reveals Plot Details

The Gifted tells the story of a suburban couple whose ordinary lives are rocked by the sudden discovery that their children possess mutant powers.

Reed (Stephen Moyer, Shots Fired, True Blood) and Caitlin (Amy Acker, Person of Interest, Angel) Strucker are typical middle-class parents dealing with the realities of raising a family. However, when their teenage kids, Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind, Gotham) and ANDY (Percy Hynes White, Night at the Museum 3), are involved in an incident at their high school which reveals they are mutants, Reed and Caitlin do all in their power to protect their children. Forced to go on the run, the Struckers must leave behind their old lives to flee from a relentless government agency that tracks down mutants, the Sentinel Services, which includes Agent Jace Turner (Coby Bell, Burn Notice). Complicating matters further is the fact that Reed is a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office tasked with going after mutants.

Desperate and running low on options, the family’s only choice is to contact an underground network that helps mutants in trouble. The mutants in the network – Eclipse / Marcos Diaz (Sean Teale, Reign), Blink / Clarice Fong (Jamie Chung, Gotham), Polaris / Lorna Dane (Emma Dumont, Aquarius) and Thunderbird / John Proudstar (Blair Redford, Satisfaction) – are dealing with their own issues. With one of their members in prison and their team possibly compromised, they face an uncertain future in a world that looks increasingly dangerous for mutants.