Are The Gifted’s Children Related to Baron von Strucker?

For many watching the premiere of The Gifted last night, it may seem as if the two Strucker children who gain mutant powers in the series are merely new inventions for the show; however, since they were announced, rumors have swirled that they may somehow be related to two similarly named siblings from the comics. Yesterday, showrunner Matt Nix added to the speculation by noting that the name ‘Strucker’ wasn’t chosen without consideration of the source material.

On the surface, the Strucker kids on The Gifted share little in common with their potential comic book counterparts. As we’ve seen from the episode and the season trailer, Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Andy (Percy Hynes White) are both high school students who are revealed to be mutants in a very public way. Lauren is able to pull together molecules, especially the air, to create shields and to move objects. Andy, meanwhile, seems to be able to bend and tear apart objects. And though Lauren has been honing her powers and hiding her secret for three years, both kids are thrust into the spotlight when Andy’s powers evolve.

In contrast, Andrea and Andreas von Strucker are the children of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, one of Nick Fury’s biggest enemies. It’s eventually revealed, though, that testing while they were in the womb lead to the twins developing mutant powers that activate when they’re together. Operating as the villain Fenris, Andreas is able to disintegrate things while Andrea can fire concussive blasts. Beyond that, their intermittent history in the comics has been full of incestuous hints, flayed skin swords, stolen identities, and clones. Naturally, none of this seems likely to carry over to The Gifted.

It’s also clear that Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer) is a far cry from Wolfgang. In fact, that character already exists in the MCU thanks to his end credits scene in The Winter Soldier and his quick appearance in Age of Ultron. Even his son, Werner, had a brief run on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Of course, there’s plenty of gray areas in the agreement between Marvel and FOX over which characters can be used.

Without getting too deep into it, there’s plenty of precedent that says the von Strucker twins could be used in The Gifted as they’re unlikely to ever appear in the MCU. They’re also mutants, putting them in line with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. And given that Marvel TV is co-producing The Gifted, the idea the that the two studios are playing nice is not hard to imagine. But that also makes it unlikely that Reed will be revealed as the X-Men universe’s version of Baron von Strucker.

As for the similarities between the Struckers and von Struckers, their power sets aren’t dissimilar. While The Gifted presents them more as forms of telekinesis than energy projection, the balance of concussive versus destructive is kept. We also haven’t seen either Lauren or Andy use their powers without their sibling somewhat nearby. While this could be a coincidence, it would certainly add some potential conflict and power limits if the Strucker children needed relative proximity to one another in order to use their abilities. Nix has teased the concept will play out over the first season, so it looks like we’ll just have to wait and see what the characters end up sharing in common.

NEXT: The Gifted Series Premiere Review