For Amy Acker, her character Caitlin Strucker is much different in this season of “The Gifted” than last season.
“I like to play different things. I think, for me, I tend to gravitate towards genre… because the roles evolve so much. Caitlin in Season 2 is a different role than I played last year. I’m sure she’ll continue to change and – who knows? – take on Reeva,” Acker said, laughing, referring to the villain Reeva Payge played by Grace Byers. “I do like to try to play different things and I’ve been lucky enough to play different things on the same show, so that’s fun.”
Earlier this month, Acker, Byers, Emma Dumont (Polaris), Coby Bell (Jace Turner), Sean Teale (Eclipse), Jamie Chung (Blink), creator Matt Nix, and executive vice president of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb discussed “The Gifted” at the New York Comic Con.
Currently in its second season, “The Gifted” is based on Marvel Comics’ “X-Men” franchise where mutants – people born with super-human abilities – are a harassed minority and anti-mutant bigotry is widespread. The X-Men strive for a world where humans and mutants can live peacefully.
However, in “The Gifted” universe, the X-Men have disappeared and various team members – John Proudstar, alias Thunderbird (Blair Redford), Polaris, Blink, and Eclipse – are part of a ragtag resistance movement fighting to stay alive.
When district attorney Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer) and his wife Caitlin, a nurse, their children Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Andy (Percy Hynes White) develop their mutant powers, they go on the run and eventually join the resistance. At the end of the first season, Andy joins the Hellfire Club.
This season picks up six months after the last and introduces the aforementioned Reeva, who takes over as leader of the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle. Slowly, she is corrupting Andy, who attacks and badly wounds his sister in the Oct. 16 episode.
“Reeva’s very aware she’s taken Andy away from his family. He has different needs and… she’s trying to be that need,” said Byers. “I’d say she’s more maternal than she is nurturing, if you will. She needs Andy to work at an optimal level, but she needs to be able to provide those needs for him as well. You’ll see more of that.”
Meanwhile, Caitlin will stop at nothing to get Andy back and reunite her family. She’s willing to go to great lengths to do, evolving from this suburban soccer mom to an underground warrior.
“She’s definitely gonna be a new person from the lady you saw last year,” said Acker.
“Heck yeah!” agreed Bell. “That mom from the pilot, think of that – think of who she was in the pilot all the way to now.”
However, Caitlin’s so focused in getting Andy back that she’s sacrificing the needs of the rest of her family in the process.
“Lauren’s stepping up to play the parental part because Reed’s busy with his secrets,” said Acker. “I’m not caring about either of them, trying to get Andy. In the meantime, I’m making questionable choices – what’s necessary to do – in order to get him back.”
Acker, who has two children of her own, stated being a mother authenticates her performance as Caitlin.
“It would be hard to separate the two (Amy from Caitlin). I do feel like my real children are mutants sometimes,” she said, laughing. “It gives me a precursor of what’s to come as they become teenagers. (Being a mother) is definitely a help. It makes a lot of what she does understandable and I hope even though she’s hurt some people this year… I feel it’s easy to justify her actions just by being a mother.”
Byers explained Reeva’s motivations, stating she’s not a villain per se.
“I wouldn’t even call her a villain. I totally believe she has a perspective that she’s willing to stand behind. (What) some people may call it murder; she’ll call it sacrifice – ‘Some of you guys are martyrs. I’m doing this for us and our world.’ The way she sees it is ‘This isn’t just gonna benefit me; it’ll benefit the nation and I will kill myself to make sure that happens.’ I think that puts her in a different category than just a villain per se because a lot of villains really work for the promise of self as opposed to the people outside of them.”
Added Dumont: “Our show is very good at showing every point of view.”
This season will introduce the Purifiers, a paramilitary organization believing themselves in a holy war against mutants, and the Morlocks, a group of outcast mutants – many of them disfigured – living underground in New York City’s abandoned tunnels and subway lines.
The X-Men has always served as allegory for real world events. The conflict between humans and mutants is often compared to conflicts between minority groups, such as African Americans, Jews, Muslims, and the gay community, among other minorities.
“There has been some turmoil in the news lately – something about a divided country,” said Nix, tongue-in-cheek. “The world of the X-Men is something that reflects a lot of the things that are going on in our world. We really wanted to use the show as a window onto what’s going on in our world right now. One of the really exciting things (on “The Gifted”) this year is to see the rise of a divided country.”
Added Loeb: “I think we all can agree that the best ‘X-Men’ stories are the stories that teach us about tolerance.”
The Gifted” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on FOX (Channel 2 in Detroit).
