X-Men TV Show May Not Be Called Gifted After All

Yesterday, Fox’s X-Men producer, Lauren Shuler Donner, tweeted out a photo from the first table read of the script for the X-Men TV show pilot. Donner’s tweet read “Cast reading for ‘Gifted’,” and even included a Gifted hashtag.

Many fans and press jumped to the not unreasonable conclusion that Gifted was then the name of the X-Men television pilot. It turns out that may not be the case.

Entertainment Weekly is now reporting that Gifted is not the official title of Fox’s X-Men TV pilot or TV show, but is the current working title of the project. The “Gifted” title is likely taken from Professor Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, where the X-Men call home, or it may be a more specific reference to the “Gifted” story arc, the first in Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men comic book series.

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The photo tweeted by Donner also included Joseph Morgan of The Originals with the cast of “Gifted.” Again, this led to some speculation and the conclusion that Morgan had joined the cast of the pilot. According to EW, this is also not the case. Morgan was apparently just on set to lend a hand at the table read, likely reading lines for one or more characters who were not at the read.

That Morgan is not part of the cast is backed up by the photo of a cast board tweeted by “Gifted” star Natalie Alyn Lind. While the photo revealed which X-Men character Blair Redford is playing, the board does not include Morgan at all.

The X-Men TV pilot follows Kate and Reed Stewart, two human parents who discover that their children are mutants. The family is forced to go on the run from an anti-mutant government and eventually meet up with an underground mutant resistance movement led by a mutant called Sam. The government has the mutant-hunting robots called Sentinels. which were previously seen in X-Men: Days of Future Past, at its disposal. Other X-Men from the Marvel Comics universe, including Polaris and Blink, are expected to appear.

“Gifted” is on the cusp of entering production and was developed by Matt Nix, who wrote the pilot episode. X-Men movies veteran Bryan Singer will direct. Nix and Singer, along with Lauren Shuler Donner, Simon Kinberg, Jim Chory, and Jeph Loeb will all serve as executive producers. The pilot stars Redford, Stephen Moyer, Amy Acker, Jamie Chung, Sean Teale, Natalie Alyn Lind, Emma Dumont, Percy Hynes White, and Coby Bell.

“Gifted” will be the second X-Men television project to enter production, following the FX drama Legion, which is currently in its first season.

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