The Gifted: Do We Need Another Superhero TV Show?

Fox has begun releasing promotional videos for their upcoming X-Men TV show The Gifted. Here’s the trailer:

Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and Amy Acker (Angel, Person of Interest) play parents who discover their children have powers and so go on the run from the government. This action-adventure series looks to be a bit more approachable than the visually stunning but confusing Legion show on FX, which is also X-Men-connected.

Unfortunately, it also look pretty familiar. Kid has traumatic incident where he discovers his powers. Community reacts badly, because mutants are hated and feared. Government officials are creepy. With all the options on TV for superhero comic fans these days, and not enough time to keep up, this doesn’t look like something I need to watch. Heck, it’s only because Amy Acker is in it that I’m even considering checking out the pilot when it runs this fall.

Mutants appearing in the show will include Polaris/Lorna Dane (Emma Dumont, controls magnetism), Blink/Clarice Fong (Jamie Chung, teleporter), Thunderbird/John Proudstar (Blair Redford, strong and fast), and Eclipse/Marcos Diaz (Sean Teale, photon manipulator, new character for the show).

Although produced by 20th Century Fox, who hold the character rights and have put out the X-Men movies, the show is done in association with Marvel Television. It was created by Matt Nix (Burn Notice, The Good Guys). Bryan Singer directed the pilot.