The Gifted ended its freshman season with our heroes on the brink of civil war, as Polaris (Emma Dumont) and Andy (Percy Hynes White) chose to join the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle along with the Frost sisters (Skyler Samuels), abandoning their loved ones in the Mutant Underground for a more proactive (i.e. aggressive) stance against the humans who have been oppressing them.

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The Gifted: "eMergence" Photos 29 IMAGES

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Season 2 picks up six months after the events of the finale, with Polaris now on the verge of giving birth and anti-mutant sentiment at an all-time high following her destruction of Senator Montez's plane. In IGN's exclusive sneak peek promo and key art from the new season, the divisions are obvious, with the promo promising that every character will be forced to pick a side in the upcoming conflict. IGN spoke to showrunner Matt Nix about the rifts that have formed between our characters - but if you think this is a clear-cut case of heroes and villains, you may want to adjust your perspective."It can be easy to decide that Polaris and Andy joined the bad guys, right? But really the big thing that we’ve been interested in this year is the idea that they joined a group that believes in what they’re doing," Nix pointed out. "When we meet the leader of the Inner Circle this year, Reeva Payge - and Grace Byers does an amazing job with this - one of the things that I love about her, and how we approach the Inner Circle, [is] they’re true believers. They are trying to fight for a mutant homeland, because they, really, sincerely believe that that is the only way that they can protect the people they love. And on the other side, the Mutant Underground is fighting for the dream of the X-Men, which is mutants and non-mutants living side-by-side in peace. And both sides are right, in a certain way."Season 2 is being marketed as the "dawn of the mutant age," which is "the vision of the Inner Circle," according to Nix. "Essentially they are saying, 'the way for us to prevail is to usher in this new age.' And they make great strides over the course of the season. The dawn of the mutant age, that’s what they’re trying to bring about. This season is maybe the darkness before the dawn."But the new season won't just be exploring the differing ideologies of the Inner Circle versus the Mutant Underground - The Gifted is also bringing in two new factions to further complicate matters - and, in the process, further emphasize what the X-Men have always fought for."This year we’re gonna meet the Purifiers in a big way, and their perspective - not without justification - is, a world where people with superpowers are running around is never gonna be safe for humans, so we do a much more human exploration," Nix previewed. "This year Jace [Coby Bell], who left the Sentinel Services at the end of last year, is going to get involved in the Purifiers, but he gets involved in a very human way. So we’re exploring this guy essentially getting involved with a hate group, but exploring the reasons why he does that - why it feels like not just a legitimate choice, but a noble choice for him."On the other end of the scale, the show will also introduce the Morlocks, "who have a completely different take on mutant freedom and mutant rights, which is essentially a separatist vision of how things should be. They don’t want anything to do with the war between the humans [and mutants]." This struggle will be seen through Blink's (Jamie Chung) unique eyes, as someone who is unable to pass as human the way mutants like Thunderbird (Blair Redford) and Eclipse (Sean Teale) can."The leader of the Morlocks is a character named Erg - Michael Luwoye plays him, he’s Hamilton on Broadway - and he’s just this magnetic, charismatic figure. And one of the things we look at is the idea that not all mutants are the same. You live a very different life if you’re Blink and you have alien-looking green eyes and facial markings and purple hair, versus if you’re Thunderbird and you look like Native American Johnny Depp," Nix pointed out. "So the Blink and Thunderbird relationship that we see at the beginning, that started last season and gets developed this season, is charming, they’re great together, and they have all kinds of chemistry. But over the course of the season, there’s a real pull for Blink to the Morlocks, because they’re the people who have gone underground partially because, when you look at them, they look like mutants."And Blink and Thunderbird aren't the only ones facing some relationship developments - Nix also revealed that Andy will be getting a love interest in Season 2, although she sounds a little ominous: "She is so much fun. That has been a super favorite character for everyone to work on. And she represents another perspective. She’s charming and she’s awesome, and ultimately she even scares the Inner Circle." Considering that members of the Inner Circle don't think twice about cold-blooded murder, that probably isn't a good thing.With all these different factions believing that their cause is justified, there's plenty of room for real-world parallels - something that the X-Men franchise has always excelled at. "Basically, the biggest thing this season is the polarization of the country around these issues of mutant rights, mutant refugees. You know - is it racism to hate mutants, or is it self-preservation to hate mutants?" Nix said. "So over the course of this season, we’re really going to be exploring this increasingly polarized nation where everyone believes they’re right and it’s really hard to find any middle ground between all of these people."But despite this increasingly fraught political backdrop, The Gifted will predominantly focus on the character relationships that fans fell in love with in Season 1, including deep-dives into the mutants' backstories."This year [we're] really going deep into Polaris’s past, meeting little Polaris. Really going deep into the tragic and compelling history of the Frosts. That was really fun. How did Blink become Blink?" Nix teased. "The first thing that we’re looking at is 'what can we delve into in these characters’ pasts that’s gonna shed light on who they are as people, what they do in this episode'? Where did Eclipse come from? Why does he care so much about being a dad? That’s the sort of thing that is really exciting."That's especially true of Polaris, whose priorities have undoubtedly shifted with impending motherhood. "On the one hand, she really misses Eclipse, and she really cares about Eclipse, and that didn’t go away. And in some sense, as much as he disagrees with what she’s doing, her idea is, she’s ultimately doing this for him too. But first and foremost, she is doing this for her child," Nix said. "So this is a huge sacrifice that she’s making, but she’s making it for the sake of the baby that’s growing inside of her, that will be born in the first episode. And that’s why she’s there [with the Inner Circle]. And one of the things that we’re also gonna explore very specifically this season is Polaris’s feelings about her own family, and the fact that she wasn’t raised - I forget the name of her birth father , but she wasn’t raised by her birth father - and she has very conflicted feelings about him, whoever he is ."The Gifted Season 2 premieres Tuesday, September 25 at 8 p.m. on Fox.