While Noah Hawley is set to be the executive producer of FX’s ‘Legion,’ we haven’t known much about what to expect from the series, until now. Unlike what Marvel tried to do with ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ and their Cinematic Universe, ‘Legion’ is set to be a stand-alone series that doesn’t directly tie into the X-Men franchise. This is going to be an interesting take on the character Legion is known primarily for interacting with other mutants as well as for being Professor X’s son.
Seems like at least the last part is going to be glossed over when this comes to life. While we know that Dan Stevens (‘Downton Abbey’) is in the lead role and be joined by Aubrey Plaza and Jean Smart, we haven’t actually heard of FX putting in a series order as of yet and just a pilot.
So what we can expect from this take on the character? Well, according to Hawley, it will focus on his mental illness and identity disorder so that each of his personas has control over a different super power just as in the comics:
“I always feel like the structure of a story should reflect the content of the story. If the story, as in this case, is about a guy who is either schizophrenic or he has these abilities, i.e., he doesn’t know what’s real and what’s not real, then the audience should have the same experience.”
Hawley is hoping to aim for a “more existential exploration” with a “surreal or dreamlike quality” in this superhero series that is more than just the usual “running and kicking”:
“There’s, whatever, 9,000 superhero stories right now. They’ve got all the running and kicking covered. I think my goal with this is to do something whimsical and imaginative and unexpected. Not just because I want to do something different, but because it feels like the right way to tell this story.
“What is it really like to hear voices or to be able to move things with your mind or to think you can move things with your mind, but you’ve been hospitalized and they’ve been talking you out of the idea that you can actually move things with your mind. If there’s one thing that television doesn’t really do, and has never really done, is to tell a surreal story. I would have loved to have been in the room with the ABC executives when they watched David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive TV pilot. You know that had to be a long silence after that thing stopped.”
At the very least this will be guaranteed to be original series. If it ever ends up seeing the light of day, though, is a completely different question. With the unique take on a gifted individual who may or may not be a hero as well as the show not being connected to the X-Men films it will clearly be a hard sell.
Do you hope that FX picks up ‘Legion’ to a series order? What are your thoughts on the direction that Hawley would want to take the show? Share your thoughts below True Believers!
Source: Vanity Fair
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
