X-Men Spin-Off Show The Gifted Renewed For Second Season, Staying On Fox For Now

With the success of Fox's X-Men movie franchise, it was only a matter of time before the Marvel mutants moved to the small screen. 2017 saw the premiere of two acclaimed shows, Legion and The Gifted. It has now been announced at the Television Critics Association winter press tour that the latter will return for a second season.

The show's first season has enjoyed solid viewing figures, with an average of 8.3 million viewers across all platforms. However, Disney's recent $52 billion deal to acquire Fox's entertainment assets had cast some doubt over the future of Marvel-related shows such as The Gifted, as Fox's Marvel movie properties like X-Men and The Fantastic Four are expected to be integrated into Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe. In addition, Disney plans to launch its own streaming service in 2019 and it is likely that its Marvel properties will have a heavy presence there.

Despite this, The Gifted is remaining on Fox's broadcast network for at least one more season. It is also worth noting that unlike the X-Men movies, Marvel was involved with development of the TV show, as it retains some of the TV rights to the characters.

The Gifted stars Stephen Moyer, Amy Acker, Natalie Alyn Lind and Percy Hynes White, and focuses on a suburban couple who are forced to go on the run from government agents when they discover that their children are mutants. The showrunner is Matt Nix, who previously produced Burn Notice.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in September, Nix spoke about juggling the different creative forces involved with the show. "It's weirdly much better than you think and much worse than you think," he said. "My feeling truly about everyone involved in the process is that they all really care about this, and nobody's stupid. They have all been down this road and know how to deal with it. The thing for me is that everybody gives really smart input, so it's my job to square, like, four different kinds of notes.

"Fox, for example, is very respectful of the source material. It's incredibly important to them, and they are conscious of wanting to make a show for everybody. You don't want to just service one fandom. At the same time, Marvel very rightly is protecting their property, so they're saying, 'This is the way this works, this is how these powers work, this is who this character is historically in the comic books.'"