Legion (TV series)

Legion is an American surrealist superhero thriller television series created by Noah Hawley for FX, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It was produced by FX Productions in association with Marvel Television, with Hawley serving as showrunner, and ran for three seasons from February 8, 2017, to August 12, 2019.

Dan Stevens stars as David Haller, a mutant diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. The series follows David as he tries to control his psychic powers and combat the sinister forces trying to manipulate him to their own ends. Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Irwin, Jeremie Harris, Amber Midthunder, Katie Aselton, and Jean Smart also starred, later being joined by Jemaine Clement, Hamish Linklater, Navid Negahban, and Lauren Tsai.

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 series is also somewhat connected to the X-Men film series, though its canonicity has never been fully clarified behind the scenes.

All three seasons of Legion were praised by critics for their distinct narrative structure, experimental visual style, and unique approach to the superhero genre.

Premise

David Haller was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age and has been a patient in various psychiatric hospitals since. 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. Another incident led to the death of his friend Lenore "Lenny" Busker. 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 struggles 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.

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. This includes 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. This brings both sides into conflict with the Time Eaters, extra-dimensional creatures threatening to destroy all of time in response to David's attempts to change it.

Cast and characters

• Dan Stevens as David Haller / Legion:
  The mutant son of Charles Xavier, David was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age and meets the "girl of his dreams" in a psychiatric hospital. The character possesses various psychic abilities, including telepathy, telekinesis and teleportation. Stevens joined the series because of showrunner Noah Hawley's involvement, and did extensive research on mental health to prepare for the role, talking to both mentally ill persons and doctors. Hawley and the cast kept secrets from Stevens about the character and plot so that he could identify with David's confusion about himself and reality.
• Rachel Keller as Sydney "Syd" Barrett:
  A young mutant woman who becomes David's girlfriend. Syd's mind trades places with that of anyone she touches, with hers entering their body, and vice versa. Because of her abilities, the character is portrayed as "withdrawn". She is named after Roger "Syd" Barrett of the rock band Pink Floyd, whose music was an important influence on showrunner Noah Hawley.
• Aubrey Plaza as Lenore "Lenny" Busker and Amahl Farouk / Shadow King:
  David's friend, an "impossible optimist" despite a history of drug and alcohol abuse. The character dies in the first episode, but returns as the main form and persona, out of several, adopted by the powerful mutant Amahl Farouk within David's mind. Farouk later gives Busker a new body to use, created by infusing Amy Haller's body with Busker's DNA. Busker was originally written for a middle-aged man, until Hawley met Plaza and rethought the character. However, Plaza insisted that the character's dialogue not be changed for her, instead choosing to play the character as both male and female, preceding their reveal as the Shadow King. This led to Busker "making crass remarks about women and muttering vintage phrases".
• Bill Irwin as Cary Loudermilk:
  A mutant scientist, one of the founders of Summerland and one of Bird's specialists. The character is introduced in the second episode, but Hawley sought to cast Irwin, for his "playful approach to characters", during filming on the pilot, before the character's role had been written. Hawley "had to pitch him the weird, crazy character dynamic and that the show is about memory and identity", and Irwin agreed to join the project.
• Jeremie Harris as Ptonomy Wallace:
  A former child prodigy and a mutant, one of Bird's specialists. A "memory artist", Ptonomy "remembers everything, and has the ability to take people back into their own memories".
• Amber Midthunder as Kerry Loudermilk:
  A mutant who lives inside Cary's body; their mutant power allows them to coexist in one body or to become separate physical persons. Kerry only ages when she is outside Cary, leaving her physically much younger than he is.
• Katie Aselton as Amy Haller (season 1; recurring season 2):
  David's adoptive older sister, who tries to remain positive despite his history of mental illness. Hawley said that she defined herself as normal "against her brother. She finds herself being looked at as if she might be crazy, as well."
• Jean Smart as Melanie Bird (seasons 1–2; special guest season 3):
  A demanding psychiatric therapist. Smart joined the series immediately when asked by Hawley, despite knowing nothing about the show and its source material, due to her previous Emmy-nominated work with him on the second season of Fargo.
• Navid Negahban as Amahl Farouk / Shadow King (seasons 2–3): A malevolent presence in David's mind who takes on several different forms. The character was portrayed in a main capacity in the first season by Plaza, while Quinton Boisclair, Devyn Dalton, Kirby Morrow and Jemaine Clement have played his alternate forms.
• Jemaine Clement as Oliver Bird (season 2; recurring season 1; special guest season 3): Melanie's mutant husband. He has spent the last 20 years on the astral plane.
• Hamish Linklater as Clark Debussy / The Interrogator (seasons 2–3; recurring season 1): An "Interrogator" for Division 3.
• Lauren Tsai as Jia-Yi / Switch (season 3): A young mutant with time-traveling abilities.

Episodes

Season 1 (2017)

Season 2 (2018)

Season 3 (2019)

Pre-production

Development

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. Hawley was initially pitched two different ideas for the potential series, 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. He pitched the series as "a deconstruction of a villain ... and a love story".