The Gifted cast teases the Morlocks, villainous Purifiers, and modern parallels 

 cast teases the Morlocks, villainous Purifiers, and modern parallels

The mutants of the X-Men comics have always been seen as a parallel for oppression, and with season 2 of

“We opened it up, so there are so many other facets of the X-Men and just our universe in general that we haven’t been able to show because of what we were doing last year,” cast member Sean Teale told EW in a Facebook Live interview at San Diego Comic-Con. “And now that we’ve been on the run, we see so many cities, so many subsets of the mutant world.”

Joined by costars Stephen Moyer, Emma Dumont, Blair Redford, Jamie Chung, Natalie Alyn Lind, and Skyler Samuels, Teale specifically mentioned the new villainous Purifiers. “The Purifiers are a mutant hate group. I don’t know what parallels we could compare that to in mordern-day times,” he said sarcastically. “If only we had an idea. They’re tiki torch-carrying mutant haters.”

Chung also pointed out the introduction of the Morlocks, a group of mutants in the comics who live underground in the sewers. “It’s the proper mutant underground, like, they’re literally mutants that live underground,” she laughed. “That’s a really interesting story line, but you get to see a different side, or a different society, of how mutants could live freely — but underground.”

When season 2 premieres this Sep. 25 on Fox, we will pick up six months after the season 1 finale. Polaris (Dumont) will be in labor — an event that makes her stronger, since mutant powers are influenced by their emotions — and much more in line with her father, Magneto.

“She follows her exact father’s footsteps,” Dumont said. “They have the same political beliefs and, now that she’s gonna be a mother, she understands what it means to be a parent and what you have to sacrifice.”

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