Marvel is having a bigger presence than usual this fall. It will start a new series on Fox, and have a mini-series on ABC that could help determine the future of Agents of SHIELD.
At first glance, it looks like Fox’s The Gifted has a better chance at success than ABC’s Inhumans. Fox has enjoyed a lot of success from its X-Men franchise, with X-Men: Apocalypse and Logan, and FX’s wildly creative show Legion, about a mutant who could be too dangerous to live. That led the network to come up with a show about a family who discovers their kids have mutant powers, However, it also means the government wants to capture them.
What’s also interesting is that the father is one of those government officials who’s supposed to hunt down mutants. When he discovers the truth, he is in a difficult spot. He decides his family comes first, which is not what his employers want.
The show has Stephen Moyer from True Blood and Amy Acker from Angel, Dollhouse and Person of Interest as the parents. That should help attract fans of those shows. It’s also created by Brian Nix, who gave us Burn Notice, and the first episode is directed by Bryan Singer, who has been a major part of the X-Men movie franchise (including directing the first two and the most recent movies).
If there’s a challenge that the show is facing, it’s the competition. It’ll be on Mondays at nine against Dancing With the Stars and The Voice. If the show is half as creative as Legion, and avoids being stuck on “fugitive family hiding in a hostile world,” The Gifted will be in great shape. It should please X-Men fans and gather an audience.
Here’s the trailer…
https://youtu.be/qTzW9rMcbzk
On ABC, its new Fantasy Fridays will feature Inhumans, an eight-part mini-series whose success may affect season five of Agents of SHIELD.
The show is about a Royal Family of Inhumans forced to leave their home on the Moon after one of their own betrays them. It’s not known how they will fit in to the SHIELD-verse, but when the Inhumans do arrive on Earth, they may not be welcome any more than the Inhumans already there (unless something happens to make the normal humans reconsider).
Inhumans will be shown Fridays at 9pm, which some consider a “death slot” because that’s when Firefly and Dollhouse were shown. However, the competition may not be stiff: it will be up against Hawaii Five-0 and second season shows The Exorcist and Taken. It may also have the advantage of fans deciding to see the show via DVR or streaming anytime over the weekend
However, ABC is taking an interesting approach: it will premiere the first two episodes at IMAX theaters on September first, and show them for two weeks. This is the only trailer so far:
The trailer ABC presented at the upfronts revealed very little compared to The Gifted. There is that voice-over given by Maximus, the Inhuman who betrayed his family. After that, there were very brief scenes from the pilot. It does include Black Bolt and his large dog landing on Earth, puzzled at what they see.
It’s expected more scenes will be revealed around Comic-Con time.
It’s likely to premiere on September 22nd, but it’s not certain how the early IMAX showings will affect ratings early on. The real key, though, is whether the audience stays steady. If it does, the success of the show could spill over to SHIELD when it starts its fifth season. It’s been rumored SHIELD will start in January, but the network hasn’t confirmed a date yet.
It’s not certain if Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal and the other Inhumans will meet Yo-Yo and Daisy anytime soon, but it would be an interesting scene if that ever happens.
If SHIELD’s fifth season is its last, or Inhumans doesn’t work out, it may not be a bad thing. Remember when Timeless on NBC got cancelled, then earned a summer season next year after fans complained on social media? Maybe Marvel shows on ABC could work better as summer shows. That way, we can get mini-series featuring SHIELD, Agent Carter or that Most Wanted show that was supposed to feature Morse and Hunter. They could still be used as a way to promote upcoming Marvel movies.
In any case, the coming fall will be very important to Marvel. A year ago, it only had SHIELD on ABC, but if it can be successful there and Fox with three shows, it will be progress, and maybe a sign of things to come.
