LEGION Ordered to Series By FX
It’s official: the X-Men universe is coming to television. FX, part of the Fox family of networks owned by 21st Century Fox, has put in a series order for Legion based on the Marvel comic.
Dan Stevens will star as David Haller, a young man diagnosed with schizophrenia, but who may actually have powers beyond those of mortal men. In fact, if the show hews to the source material, Haller is actually the son of Professor Charles Xavier, leader of The X-Men, and Gabirelle Haller, an Israeli survivor of the Holocaust.
After a strange encounter with a fellow patient in a psychiatric hospital (one of many he’s encountered since his teen years), Haller has to face the possibility that the voices and visions in his head are real, not figments of his imagination.
Noah Hawley (Fargo) will serve as an Executive Producer along with Lauren Shuler Donner (X-Men: Days of Future Past, Deadpool), Bryan Singer (X-Men: Apocalypse, Superman Returns), Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Martian), Jeph Loeb (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel’s Daredevil, Marvel’s Jessica Jones), Jim Chory (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel’s Daredevil, Marvel’s Jessica Jones) and John Cameron (Fargo, The Big Lebowski). Legion is the latest project from Hawley and Cameron, two of the Executive Producers of the Emmy® and Golden Globe® -winning FX limited series Fargo.
“We’ve come to expect excellence from Noah Hawley and with Legion he has delivered another major creative achievement,” said Grad. “Just as he did in reimagining Fargo, he is bringing an entirely new aesthetic and sensibility to the enormously popular and richly represented X-Men world. The pilot episode is stunning, driven by incredible performances from Dan Stevens, Aubrey Plaza, Jean Smart, Rachel Keller and the rest of the cast. We join our producing partners at Marvel in congratulating the creative team for what they’ve accomplished and are as excited as the fans for the premiere of Legion’s first season.”
“Marvel Television is thrilled to not only have our first partnership with FX go to series, but working with the enormously talented Noah Hawley makes it even better,” said Executive Producer Jeph Loeb. “From the first time we heard Noah’s vision to his exceptional script and cast through the extraordinary filming of the pilot, we knew the series would be incredible.”
The show is set to debut in 2017.
With this development, the question now on the table is whether or not this Marvel television universe will play nice with that Marvel film universe. Since both are owned by Fox, it’s a logical connection to make. But as we’ve seen with the Marvel Marvel Universe, logic doesn’t always dictate a course of action.
