The idea of the X-Men making an appearance on the small screen is what "The Gifted" teases on a weekly basis.

With the FOX TV show already halfway in their premiere season, they have built a foundation of good story-telling mixed with a lot of popular references to the X-Men comic books and cinematic universe.

All of these breadcrumbs have many fans asking about what happened to the X-Men in the universe of the TV show. "The Gifted" has uttered the name of the X-Men in more than one occasion, cementing the connection that the series has with the movies.

However, a clear timeline has not been established by the show to attach itself to the X-Men universe. While that may be the case, the last couple of episodes have shed light on what happened to the legendary team, while maintaining an air of vagueness about the entire matter.

The X-Men reference is so heavy in this show but at the same time completely skirts around the team's status. The first episode of "The Gifted" Eclipse (Sean Teale) mentions the X-Men and even includes the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and how those two groups do not exist anymore. In another episode, Thunderbird (Blair Redford) utters the name "X-Men" again, saying that the team handpicked him to be part of the movement and even warned him about the upcoming war. This week's episode also has Thunderbird saying in a flashback that the X-Men is no more, and it is now up to the Mutant Underground to help each other out.

Whether or not "The Gifted" is part of the X-Men cinematic universe is still undefined at this point, but the possibility of the X-Men making a cameo appearance in the show is a possibility. The show still has characters like Polaris and the Strucker siblings that connects to X-Men universe in more ways than one, so the X-Men is not off the hook just yet.

"The Gifted" airs every Monday at 9 p.m. EST on FOX.