The Gifted creator talks Fox's X-Men lore divide and hopes for MCU future

With the creative constraints at least theoretically loosened from the X-Men now that Disney has control of the formerly Fox-owned franchise, longtime fans have been eager to see how all things mutant could fold into future MCU projects. One former TV creator who worked on the Fox side of the former X-Men divide says he’s hopeful that whatever Disney does, it won’t be bound by having to keep its characters separate.

Matt Nix, creator and showrunner of the brief but fan favorite X-Men TV series The Gifted, recently shared with CBR a peek at the challenges of leaving some of the comics' biggest names out of the creative equation. Nix said he’s hopeful that whatever magic Disney and Marvel used to assemble the Avengers for success on both the big and (lately, at Disney+) small screen will finally find a way to filter over into the X-Men universe.

“My fantasy for an X-Men TV show going forward, whether or not I'm involved with it, is something where they really can integrate what's going on with the movies and what's going on on TV and not need to keep such a rigid wall between the two of them," Nix said.

"That's something they did very well with the Avengers and, hopefully, they can do that with the X-Men, because we were in a position where we were like, 'Let's make a show about the X-Men and never say the word ‘Magneto.''

The Gifted ran for two seasons at Fox before its cancellation in 2019, unfolding a new mythos in which the Struckers, a pair of plain old human parents (played by Stephen Moyer and Amy Acker), join their mutant children in a stealthy struggle for survival outside the prying eyes of the outside world. The setup gave Nix the chance to explore some of the inner conflicts between mutant factions, but he had to achieve it while tiptoeing around pieces of Fox-excluded X-Men lore that, since the show aired, are at last part of the wider Marvel canon under Disney’s ownership.

Walking that fine line, Nix admitted, was “a challenge,” but one he tried to make the most of. “I think we worked our way around it as best as we could,” he said. “I'm proud of the show, but obviously, that's not ideal. But, I'm excited to see what they do with it because it's a world that I love.”

So far, fans are still waiting right along with Nix to see how the X-Men might factor into the MCU’s nascent Phase 4, even as we await fresh news on Ryan Reynolds’ return as the merc with a mouth in the upcoming, undated third Deadpool movie (the first to be developed since the Disney-Fox merger). In the meantime, you can catch up on The Gifted at Hulu, where both seasons of the short-lived series are available for streaming.