‘The Gifted’ Hits NYC Streets With Mutant Testing In Fox Upfront Promo

EXCLUSIVE: Call it Homeland Security meets 23andMe if you want, but a timely Upfronts promotion today in New York for Fox’s The Gifted might be giving attendees a bit more information than they expected.

Tied into the Marvel action-adventure drama from writer Matt Nix and X-Men director Bryan Singer, a mysterious black van is making its way around the Big Apple before Fox’s Upfront at the Beacon Theatre this afternoon. As you can see from the photo from above, the Sentinel Services’ Mutant Testing Center vehicle and accompanying menacing government agents are offering information on whether you are mutant and how to get tested for the gene. Just before 4 PM ET, the van and 10 Sentinel agents will end up making their presence known outside the Beacon’s Upper West Side location.

The real payoff is intended to come later today at the network’s Upfront party at the Donald Trump-resurrected Wollman Rink in Central Park. Attendees at the ice rink location will be offered the opportunity to find out if they have the mutant gene of X-Men lore – seriously.

At the party’s Sentinel Services Mutant Testing Center, willing attendees can play ball with the Stephen Moyer- and Amy Acker-led series about a family trying to escape the mutant-hunting feds when it turns out their kids have the gene and emerging powers. Willing participants will receive a cheek swab genetic test from nurses at the testing station. Part of the gimmick will be that some will be told that they have the dreaded (in some eyes) mutant gene. But here’s the real life result – everyone who takes the swab with get an “I Got Tested” sticker and actual genetic results about who they are and where they came from.

The actual test results are expected to show up in the mail in about a month and half – if the Sentinels agents don’t get to you first, which as fans of The X-Men know, rarely ends well.

Nix and Singer are EPs on The Gifted along with Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb, Lauren Shuler Donner, Simon Kinberg and Jim Chory. Sean Teale, Jamie Chung, Coby Bell, Emma Dumont, Blair Redford, John Proudstar, Natalie Alyn Lind and Percy Hynes White co-star.