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The Gifted Season 2: Emma Dumont Talks Found Family and a Modern Day Perspective for the X-Men

The finale of The Gifted aired and with it we might see the end of this corner of the X-Men universe. The show didn't quite hit the potential it likely had but it did bring us a new angle on mutants. The X-Men have always been stand in's for minority and marginalized groups but that message has gotten a little lost in the recent years under a lot of special effects in the movies. The Gifted didn't have the budget for that sort of thing so they had to stay a little more grounded. One of the things that has been fun to watch is the evolution of Lorna Dane aka Polaris played by Emma Dumont. Emmy.com got a chance to speak to Dumont about bringing the mutants to the modern day.

Something that our show carried on from the original comics was that it does represent minority or marginalized groups. Another thing our show does is tackle political problems like societal intolerance, and the idea that even if you are an outcast you will always find your true family, even if it's not the one you were born into, which is really what the X-Men were all about.

The most obvious of the societal intolerance comes in the second episode when Marcos Diaz aka Eclipse tells human and mother to two mutants that it is extremely hard for mutants to get health care. They have "the ultimate preexisting condition". This is the sort of the thing The Gifted leaned into and Dumont spoke about how these mutants are more refugees than anything else.

Our show is basically about refugees, about people seeking solace away from their homes and being hunted by government agencies. I'm grateful that we can throw a mirror up to people in their living rooms every week and show the injustices that are going on in the world, through an X-Men and superhero lens.

The second season split our groups of heroes into two groups which is a very common theme in the X-Men. It isn't quite as black and white as the comics could sometimes be with the Professor Xaver versus Magneto fights. There are family's split in the second season and that very much played into the theme of the season.

That definitely was intentional. Another theme of this season was the media and how that plays into people's thoughts and opinions and how much that affects, and even alters, what people believe. [The fictional cable news reporter in the show] is basically a propaganda pusher, and definitely has a mutant-hating agenda. And that character is based on real people.

The show danced around Magneto a lot, to date they have never actually named him, and for a good portion of the second season, Lorna was conflicted about how she felt about her family. In episode eight we saw her come to terms with who her father was and why he left her the way he did. She took a memento from him and turned it into a crown accepting her place in this world. Dumont explains that Lorna is conflicted when it comes to the idea of family because of not only her father but also how she left the Mutant Underground.

It's hard for Polaris because she doesn't want to be associated with anyone. We see her trying to get away from her family legacy. She grew up in a time when someone like her father, [X-Men villain] Magneto, was more of an activist than anything. She was taught that he was a criminal and a villian.

She wants to escape that, but in her heart she knows that the things her father believed in were true. Polaris and her father have the same moral compass: mutants should not be harmed, and anyone that supports that is a terrible person. For her it's a weird line of not wanting to be seen as a villain, but also wanting to do what's right. So we see her in Season 2 eventually accept her family legacy.

And on the flip side of that she's also abandoning her newfound family, the Mutant Underground. She can't stand their passive attitude. You know, we're in a time now in society where it's not enough to not be a bigot; it's about taking action. That sort of parallels what Polaris feels, where it's not enough to not hate mutants.

The final scene of season two set up some really interesting ideas that could be explored if this shows gets a third season. At the moment Fox isn't saying one way or another. We might find out soon or we might have to wait until May when most of the renewals and cancelations are announced. For now, this is a fun little show and worth a look over on Hulu.

Action-adventure family drama THE GIFTED, from Marvel, tells the story of a suburban couple whose ordinary lives are rocked by the sudden discovery that their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive.

Created by Matt Nix, FOX's The Gifted stars Stephen Moyer, Amy Acker, Natalie Alyn Lind, Percey Hynes White, Sean Teale, Emma Dumont, Jamie Chung, and Blair Redford. Seasons one and two are currently streaming on Hulu.

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