'The Gifted' Showrunner Matt Nix Thinks Season 3 Could Move To Streaming [Interview]

Matt Nix created the X-Men TV series The Gifted for Fox. He has previously spoken with /Film before season 1 and season 2. This new season has introduced Reeva Payge and the Inner Circle as new foils for the Mutant Underground.At the Fox party for the Television Critics Association this month, Nix spoke with /Film again about the rest of the season and where he sees The Gifted going in the future. There's a good chance it won't stay on Fox.Where are we going headed into the season finale?Well, over the course of the season, obviously we've seen the Purifiers ramping up at the same time that the Inner Circle's ramping up. Those tensions are going to come to a head in a big way. Basically, as we head into the finale, we begin to see what is the nature of this relationship between Reeva and Benedict Ryan. What is the future they're trying to create for our nation and our world.Are you introducing any new characters before the end of season two?Nothing major. We're making some big moves but there are no major character reveals as I recall. There are some new characters but nothing huge.Not major comic book characters?No, not major comic book characters.They didn't announce a renewal, but do you have a sense of where things stand for season three?I think that my sense is that the most likely thing is that if we come back, we'll come back in some sort of creative way. Some partnership, because I think what we've discovered is that fans of The Gifted are big fans of The Gifted. We have a solid fan base and it's a little small for the broadcast networks. But we do well on streaming so there may be, my hope is that there's something to work out in that realm.You don't anticipate another 22 episode season?I don't anticipate a 22 episode season on broadcast but I'd love to be wrong.Broadcast does 10-13 now.Yeah, the bottom line is these days, especially with the Disney merger and everything, there are creative versions of the ways shows come back and I think hopefully we're one of those shows.What does that mean for how you end season 2?I'm really happy, I was just watching it before I came here. Basically, what's exciting about it is it's pretty epic. It completes our season in what I think is a really satisfying way and opens some really interesting questions promising some really cool story. I'm not a big fan of the crazy cliffhanger that sort of punishes the audience for hanging on. At the same time, you want something that says, "Hey, come back because there's something fun to do here." I feel like we found a good place with that. It's pretty epic. It's pretty big.Have you allowed yourself to start thinking about comic books and elements that could be a season three?Yeah, a lot of times what we're doing in the show is kind of echoes of something that's been in the comics. There will be something like there's a big one coming up in the next episode but it's not precisely out of the comics. Anyone who knows the comics well will recognize it immediately. It's a big thing that happens and as I say it's not like if you read a comic book, you'd be like oh, that's that comic book. Even the fact that 7/15 on the show took place in Dallas is a reference to a whole series of things that happened in the comics. So in thinking about a season three, should we be so lucky, the idea is we've got a lot of things that we can echo but we don't look at the comics and go let's do this specifically because obviously we're not playing with the same set of characters so we can't.What are you reading as a potential hook for season three?I guess I'd say it's not this, but it would be informed by the ideas in Days of Future Past.Does the fact that Legion is ending after season three give you some pause?Legion, the truth is, Legion is a great show but Legion was doing a very different thing. I think it's fair to say that Noah had a story that Noah wanted to tell and that story, he had a story that he wanted to tell and he told that story in the universe of the X-Men. He didn't really have an X-Men story to tell. He had a Noah Hawley story to tell and as a huge fan of his, I'm like totally down for that. I think that's really cool. I think our show is really more of that universe if that makes sense. I think that I look at Legion and it's just like that's kind of what he does. That's his thing. With Fargo and everything, he's got the thing he does and he did it and I think it's appropriate for it to come to and end where he wants it to come to an end.Legion removed Bryan Singer as EP. Do you think The Gifted will?You know, the truth is, Bryan was always going to be a pilot director. He's still an EP on our show. He's contractually a part of that but for our show, he was always going to be a pilot director who went on. He was talking about doing Bohemian Rhapsody while we were shooting the pilot, so it's not like there was ever a scenario where he was hanging around to do things because he was a busy guy regardless. Whatever his deal is, it didn't really change anything vis a vis our world.Lauren Shuler Donner said she's taken a backseat in the movies. Has she been hands off on The Gifted too?She's definitely been involved moving forward. A lot of what she's done is helped us negotiate our relationship with the movies because thats' a thing that she really has. She's also had significant creative input in other ways. One of our EPs Derek Hoffman works very closely with her and he's been on the set throughout. So I think that she's definitely contributed creatively. I think her relationship to us is very different than her relationship with Legion.Are you working on anything else for next season?Yeah, I'm developing stuff. You always do that so fingers crossed.