FX’s ‘Legion‘ finally introduced us to David Haller’s father Professor X with Harry Lloyd (‘Game of Thrones’) playing Charles Xavier. While we’ve only briefly met Lloyd in the role so far, there were early rumblings in the first season that Hawley was potentially trying to get Patrick Stewart to reprise his iconic take of the character.
That didn’t happen. In fact, the showrunner didn’t even think to ask Stewart when they finally got around to casting the leader of the X-Men. However, the reason why makes perfect sense with the direction that they went.
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According to Hawley:
“We’re going to have to meet [David’s] parents eventually. Nobody fought us on it. There was a question obviously about what age is he? What’s the model? Is he the McAvoy age? Is he Patrick Stewart age? Should we try to get either of those actors to do it? Ultimately, I felt like we established our own alternate reality here on ‘Legion,’ where it’s both 1964 and the future… I think I felt like the younger Xavier was actually more consistent with the timeline. But there’s something about David, if David meets his father and his father is his age, I think there’s something interesting about that.”
With time travel in full effect and Legion making a younger version of his father it makes sense not to try to get Stewart back. It gives us a chance for Haller to interact with his father before he has fully come into his own as the confident, self-assured leader of the X-Men who would be able to contend with the powers his son has developed.
Do you agree with Hawley on not bringing Patrick Stewart as Professor X in ‘Legion’? Would you have preferred that the series found a way to deliver us the actor we all feel should play the part for the rest of his life? Share your thoughts in the comments below, True Believers!
Source: Screen Rant
