As confirmed previously, The Gifted’s Polaris (Emma Dumont) is in fact the daughter of Magneto, the fan-favorite Master of Magnetism, who has been portrayed by both Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellen in the live-action X-Men films. However, whether or not that would be addressed on the series was a mystery — until now. Speaking to a room full of press including CBR at New York Comic Con, Dumont revealed that she will discover her villainous parentage on the X-Men-based FOX series.
Polaris has heard rumours about who her father is and she’s heard…it’s this very powerful mutant, but then she’s heard that some people may consider him a villain, and that he’s not a good guy, but that he’s done some great things, but maybe they weren’t great, and he has very specific views, and he’s very black and white, and no one should challenge him, and he’s very stubborn. And she’s like, ‘oh wait, that’s how I am. Maybe he is my dad. Am I a bad guy? I don’t know.’
She definitely…Magneto is her father, and she will find out about it soon enough.
RELATED: The Gifted’s Polaris Suffers from Bipolar Disorder
In the same conversation, Dumont also confirmed her character suffers from a form of bipolar disorder, just as she does in the comics.
In the comics Polaris has bipolar disorder. Is that something you’d like to explore on The Gifted?
100% that’s something we’re already doing. You’re totally correct, she has bipolar disorder. She’s unmedicated, she’s not being treated for it, I don’t even know if in our show she knows she has it — but she definitely does. She has major bouts of mania and very, very low times of depression…I think it’s really rad to see [someone] mentally ill — also a woman — be a hero.
In the comics, Polaris also has a form of bipolar disorder — something that was confirmed by writer Peter David who crafted the character’s stories for a number of years over in the ’90s X-Factor, and once again in a new volume of X-Factor a few years back. It seems her Magneto parentage isn’t the only strong similarity to her comics version.
Airing Mondays at 9 pm ET/PT on Fox, The Gifted stars Stephen Moyer as Reed Strucker, Amy Acker as Caitlin Strucker, Sean Teale as Marcos Diaz/Eclipse, Coby Bell as Jace Turner, Emma Dumont cast as Lorna Dane/Polaris, Jamie Chung as Blink/Clarice Fong and Blair Redford as John Proudstar/Thunderbird, Natalie Alyn Lind as Lauren Strucker and Percy Hynes White as Andy Strucker.