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Legion is an American superhero television series created by Noah Hawley for FX, based on the Marvel Comics character David Haller / Legion. Set in an alternate timeline of the X-Men film series, it was produced by FX Productions in association with Marvel Television, and ran for three seasons from 2017 to 2019, with Hawley serving as showrunner.
Dan Stevens starred as David Haller, a "mutant" diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. The series follows Haller as he tries to control his mutant powers and the sinister forces trying to control them while evading a government agency. Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Irwin, Jeremie Harris, Amber Midthunder, and Jean Smart also starred, along with Katie Aselton during the first season. For the second season, Jemaine Clement and Hamish Linklater were promoted to main cast after having recurring roles and Navid Negahban joined the cast. Lauren Tsai joined for the third season.
FX and Marvel Television announced a new collaboration to create a television series based on the Marvel Comics character Legion in October 2015, with Hawley signed on to write and direct the pilot. He wanted to show Haller as an "unreliable narrator", including mixing 1960s design with modern-day elements, and filming the series through the title character's distorted view of reality.
The eight-episode first season of Legion aired from February to March 2017. An eleven-episode second season aired from April to June 2018. The eight-episode third and final season premiered on June 24, 2019.[1] A total of 27 episodes aired over three seasons. All three seasons received critical acclaim for their distinct narrative structure and visual style, as a unique approach to the superhero genre.
David Haller was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age and has been a patient in various psychiatric hospitals since the diagnosis. He was committed to the latest facility by his adoptive sister, Amy Haller. After Haller has an encounter with fellow patient Syd Barrett, he is confronted with the possibility that there may be more to him than mental illness where an incident led to the death of his friend Lenore "Lenny" Busker.[2] Hunted by the government agency Division 3 in the first season, Haller is saved by Syd and a group of mutants at a facility called Summerland, who explain that he is also a psychic mutant. Haller eventually discovers that his mind is infected by a parasitic mutant, another psychic named Amahl Farouk / Shadow King, and is able to force the villain from his mind.
In the second season, Haller returns after a year spent trapped in a mysterious orb. In his absence, his Summerland allies have joined forces with Division 3 to stop Farouk's plan to find his real body and amass world-ending power. Farouk uses Oliver Bird and a device stolen from Division 3 to enable Lenny to be reborn in Amy's body.[3]
In the third season, due to Shadow King's evidence, David flees from Division 3 with Lenny where they set up a place for his cult as David gets a time-traveling mutant named Switch on his side. He plans to improve Switch's powers in order to protect the world. David kidnaps Cary Loudermilk to help him amplify Switch's powers. David then uses Switch to go back to when he was a child and witnesses various parts of his parents' past including his father Charles Xavier going to war and meeting his mother Gabrielle Haller at a mental facility, his father locating and meeting Farouk, and how Farouk got into him in the first place, though this does bring both sides into conflict with the Time Eaters.
After completing work on the first season of Fargo at FX in 2014, Noah Hawley was presented with the opportunity to develop the first live-action television series based on the X-Men comics, of which he was a fan when growing up.[54] Hawley was initially pitched two different ideas for the potential series,[9] including an adaptation of the comics' Hellfire Club, but the ideas did not interest him. Instead, he worked with X-Men film series writer and producer Simon Kinberg to reverse-engineer an idea for the series. After discussing an "interesting show in this genre ... that isn't being done", the two settled on the character of David Haller / Legion. Hawley found the character interesting because of his mental illness, and for the potential of the series to depict his unique mindset.[54] He pitched the series as "a deconstruction of a villain ... and a love story".[9]
In October 2015, FX ordered a pilot for Legion, with Marvel Television and FX Productions producing, with the latter handling the physical production. Hawley was set to write the pilot, and executive produce the series alongside X-Men film producers Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer, and Kinberg, Marvel Television executives Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory, and Hawley's Fargo collaborator John Cameron.[2] Steve Blackman, Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Joe Quesada, and Karim Zreik also executive produce.[55] Hawley's initial script for the series was described as "less fractured", "cohesive [and] much more regular." However, he quickly reconceived the series and decided "more Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Terrence Malick, more whimsy, more impressionistic.".[9] By January 2016, FX President John Landgraf was confident that the series would be picked up by the network, saying that "the vast majority of things that we pilot do go forward to series" and "the scripts [for Legion] are extraordinary."[56] That May, FX ordered an eight-episode first season of Legion.[14]
In June, Landgraf said that the series, if successful, could run for as many seasons as Hawley feels it needs to tell the story.[57] Discussing future seasons, Hawley said in January 2017 that he was open to continuing the story past the first season, but didn't want the audience to get to the end of the first run and have "no resolution of any kind at the end of it." Star Dan Stevens said, "I know for a fact that there are more issues that David has to deal with than the one that we really address in the first season."[7] Also at that time, Singer explained the executive producers' roles in the series, saying that he, Donner, and Kinberg brought their experience from making the X-Men films, but their involvement generally consisted of giving small notes on scripts and early cuts of episodes.[58]
Kinberg teased in November 2015 that the series would tell "X-Men stories in a slightly different way and even with a slightly different tone" from the films, noting the differences in tone between the "operatic" X-Men films and the "irreverent and hysterical" Deadpool, and feeling that Legion gives "us an opportunity to go even further ... in some ways to sort of blow up the paradigm of comic book or superhero stories and almost do our Breaking Bad of superhero stories."[59] Loeb noted that "the core" of all X-Men comic books has always been that "the X-Men were different ... We live in a world right now where diversity and uniqueness and whether or not we fit in is something that's on our minds twenty-four hours a day." Hawley added, "The great thing about exploring this character is before he has an opinion about anyone else, he has to figure out his own shit. That's what we all have to do. This journey isn't necessarily racing toward a battle with an entity, so much as embracing the battle within."[5]
Concerning the mental illness aspects of the character, Hawley said, "It's a tragic condition that people have, and so I don't want to use it for entertainment purposes ... if we can ground that [aspect] for the audience, then the idea that he's fallen in love and that he's not ill, there's a hope to that that the audience is gonna grab onto."[61] In January 2017, Hawley explained that he was willing to use different tropes from the superhero genre in the series, such as superhero costumes with capes, if necessary, but did want to avoid "sending a message that all conflict can only be resolved through battle. There is a sense in a lot of these stories that everything always builds to a big fight ... I wanted to find a story that was just as exciting and interesting but doesn't send the message that in the end that 'might makes right'."[6]
At the end of the first season, Hawley said, "I like this idea of having to face our demons", with the first season seeing Haller go through an internal struggle with the malevolent Shadow King occupying his mind, and then the second season seeing that character possess someone else "making it an exterior agent. And there's going to be something very complicated about going to war with himself. It's been with him since he was a baby, it's like a phantom limb now, it's part of him." Hawley said he preferred this idea of a villain "worthy of creating a whole story around", rather than a villain-of-the year. He was unsure at the time how long that storyline would continue throughout the show, but said "it's a fascinating setup to follow."[62]
In January 2016, Rachel Keller was cast as the female lead of the series, after her breakout role in Fargo.[63] In early February, Stevens, Aubrey Plaza, and Jean Smart were cast as Haller, his friend Lenny Busker, and therapist Melanie Bird, respectively. Keller's role was revealed to be Syd Barrett.[4][5][16] Later that month, Jeremie Harris was cast in the regular role of Ptonomy Wallace,[19] and Amber Midthunder was cast as the savant Kerry Loudermilk.[20][5] In March, Katie Aselton was cast as Haller's older sister Amy.[21] With the full series order in May 2016, Bill Irwin was added to the cast,[14] in the role of Cary Loudermilk.[5]
Stevens, Keller, Plaza, Irwin, Harris, Midthunder, and Smart returned for the second season,[24] with Aselton making a guest appearance in the season before Amy's body is transformed into a new one for Busker.[12] They are joined by Navid Negahban, cast as the true form of the Shadow King, a character that appeared in several different forms throughout the first season.[23] Jemaine Clement and Hamish Linklater also star in the second season,[24] after having guest roles during the first season as Oliver Bird, the husband of Melanie, and the "Interrogator" Clark Debussy, respectively.[64][15]
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