When it was first announced that actress Amy Acker was joining the cast of Fox’s X-Men series The Gifted, there was a lot of excitement coming from fans. After all, after having big roles in such fan-favorite shows as Buffy: The Vampire Slayer spin-off Angel, Dollhouse and Person of Interest, the actress has quite the following, and a bit of a reputation as a woman of action. Many assumed that having her in a comic book-based show meant the actress would put her action skills to good use once again.
However, that didn’t turn out to be the case. In the first season of The Gifted, the role of Acker’s Caitlin Strucker was more or less confined to concerned wife and mother. Sure, Caitlin pulled her own weight in helping the Mutant Underground from Sentinel Services, and her skills as a nurse came in handy every now and then — but fans felt like the actress’ potential wasn’t used to its fullest.
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Well, that now seems set to change with the arrival of Season 2 this fall. While answering reader questions, TVLine reported that Caitlin Strucker will be a much different person when we catch up with her in the premiere. “We got the script for the first episode [of Season 2], and it said ‘Six months later, Caitlin’s face is hardened by grief, her body is hardened by six months of intense training,’” the actress answered. Given that she only had five days of prep time to tackle the more physical role, Acker was definitely taken aback. “I was like, ‘Uhhhh… someone could have mentioned that to me!”
On top of that, it looks like Acker’s Caitlin may have her own weapon of choice. “I paid for sword-fighting lessons, so I feel like we’ve got to do something, right?” It appears as if, in the six months between Seasons 1 and 2, Caitlin will have evolved from nurse to freedom fighter — and her new skills will surely prove useful when the Mutant Underground goes to war with the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club.
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Returning for Season 2 Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, Fox’s The Gifted stars Stephen Moyer as Reed Strucker, Amy Acker as Caitlin Strucker, Sean Teale as Eclipse/Marcos Diaz, Jamie Chung as Blink/Clarice Fong, Coby Bell as Jace Turner, Emma Dumont as Polaris/Lorna Dane, Blair Redford as Thunderbird/John Proudstar, Natalie Alyn Lind as Lauren Strucker, Percy Hynes White as Andy Strucker and Skyler Samuels as the Frost Sisters.
