Legion (TV series)

Premise

David Haller was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age, and has been a patient in various psychiatric hospitals since. After Haller has an encounter with a fellow psychiatric patient, he is confronted with the possibility that there may be more to him than mental illness.

Main

Recurring

Guest

Development

After he completed work on the first season of his series 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 Hawley was a fan while growing up. Hawley was initially pitched two different ideas for potential series, including a series based on the comics' Hellfire Club, but the ideas did not interest Hawley. Instead, he worked with Simon Kinberg, a writer and producer of the X-Men film series, 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 to the producers as "a deconstruction of a villain ... and a love story".

In October 2015, FX ordered a pilot for Legion, with Marvel Television and FX Productions producing; FX Productions would handle 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. Steve Blackman, Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Joe Quesada, and Karim Zreik also executive produce. 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 and went in that direction." By January 2016, FX President John Landgraf was confident that the series would be picked up by the network, probably for ten episodes, saying that "the vast majority of things that we pilot do go forward to series" and "the scripts [for Legion] are extraordinary." That May, FX ordered an eight-episode first season of Legion. Later, in June, Landgraf explained that only eight episodes were ordered because FX wanted Hawley to run the series at his own pace rather than try and "pad" it out. He also said that the series, if successful, could run for as many seasons as Hawley feels it needs to tell the story.

Singer explained the executive producers' roles in the series in January 2017, saying that he, Donner, and Kinberg brought their experience from making the X-Men films, but their involvement generally consisted of just giving small notes on scripts and early cuts of episodes. Singer called Hawley "a brilliant writer, great director, quite a visualist", and said that he was comfortable leaving the series for Hawley to create as he saw fit. Discussing future seasons, Hawley said 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."

Writing

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." In January 2016, Landgraf said that the pilot and several further episodes had been written, and the series "might be [set] a few years in the past". 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. The X-Men have never been more relevant than they are right now." 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."

In May 2016, Hawley described his take on the series as being inspired by the works of David Lynch, and said that "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 ... 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." Elaborating on structuring the series to reflect Haller's point of view, Hawley said, "I love the idea that even when you're in it on the journey, there is this Alice in Wonderland quality to it, of a story within a story." Discussing the increasing popularity of unreliable narrators in television, Hawley said that he wanted to avoid making the audience think that the series is a puzzle that needs to be solved by solving the mysteries for them upfront—"We’re going to take a character out of confusion into clarity and an audience out of mystery into clarity." Hawley deliberately chose not to directly adapt any storylines from the comics, feeling that "you're bound to offend somebody, no matter what you do" in that situation. Instead, he wanted to take the character of Legion and basic set-up around him, and "play" with that, which he described in relation to Fargo—"my job was not to remake the movie, to sort of retell a story that had already been told, but to try to tell a different story with the same effect, the same impact."

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 ... once upon a time he was a little boy who had his whole life ahead of him, and then he began to hear voices and to see things, and ended up institutionalized, and there’s a tragedy, a tragic nature to that. So if we can ground that 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." 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'."

Casting

In January 2016, Rachel Keller was cast as the female lead of the series, after her breakout role in Fargo. 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. Later that month, Jeremie Harris was cast in the regular role of Ptonomy Wallace, and Amber Midthunder was cast as the savant Kerry Loudermilk. In March, Katie Aselton was cast as Haller's older sister Amy. With the full series order in May 2016, Bill Irwin was added to the cast, in the role of Cary Loudermilk.

Hawley announced in October 2016 that Jemaine Clement would be joining the series in what was described as "a multi-episode arc", later revealed to be portraying Oliver Bird, Melanie's husband. Other recurring actors in the show include David Selby as a member of Division 3, Ellie Araiza as Haller's ex-girlfriend Philly, Quinton Boisclair as the Devil with the Yellow Eyes, Mackenzie Gray as Walter / The Eye, and Scott Lawrence as Dr. Poole.

Also in October 2016, Hawley said that Haller's comic book father Charles Xavier, who is portrayed in the X-Men films by Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy at different ages, would "probably" be appearing in the series. In January 2017, producer Lauren Shuler Donner said that the series would definitely "touch on" Haller's connection to Xavier, but that neither Stewart nor McAvoy would be portraying the character in the series. Hawley clarified that there were no plans for the character to appear in the first season, and that the reason a film actor was unlikely to reprise the role in the series at some point was, "You’d have to pay those guys so much money ... movie money in a different medium." In March, Stewart expressed interest in reprising the role for the series, despite feeling that his role in the X-Men film Logan was "a perfect farewell" to the character.

Design

Though he put little thought into the aesthetics of the series when writing the pilot, as a director Hawley wanted the series to be highly stylized, describing his vision for it as "a 1964 Terence Stamp movie". It was not feasible to literally translate Bill Sienkiewicz's iconic artwork of the character to the screen, and Hawley wanted the series to have "its own visual aesthetic to it, and part of that is being a story kind of out of time and out of place". He stated that "the design of a show has to have its own internal logic", and compared this sensibility to the series Hannibal, which he said was "a great example of something that had this almost fetishistic beauty to everything that you saw, whether it was food or violence." Hawley elaborated that the design choice of 60s British films came about because "this whole show is not the world, it’s David’s experience of the world. He’s piecing his world together from nostalgia and memory and the world becomes that."

Production designer Michael Wylie, who had previously worked on Marvel Television's Agent Carter, found designing for Legion to have much more flexibility than other series, noting that "a lot of times in TV shows, things have to be in continuity", but not so much for Legion. To try avoid dating the series, elements such as cars are rarely shown, and when they are seen there is a mixture of modern-day cars and vehicles from the 60s. Clothing is also a mixture of present-day and past fashions, emulating a prediction of the future from the 60s or 70s. Wylie explained that "story is being told from an unreliable narrator so we can do whatever we want." Visual inspiration was taken from the works of Stanley Kubrick, including A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Several props from the X-Men films were brought to Vancouver for use in the series, from storage in the US and Montreal, where the films are produced. Wylie said he was free to use these as he wished: "You don’t have to follow any rules. If you come up with something, you can do something because you think it’s cool, or that it’s pretty or it manipulates somebody."

Filming

Filming for the pilot began in March, in Vancouver, with Hawley directing and Dana Gonzales serving as cinematographer. With the series order, the rest of the first season were set to start filming in August 2016, also in Vancouver. In addition to Gonzales, Craig Wrobleski also serves as a cinematographer on the series. Both Ganzales and Wrobleski previously worked with Hawley on Fargo. Gonzales referenced Kubrick, Malick, and Paolo Sorrentino as influences on the filming style of the show, and noted that they were able to use a 9.8 Kinoptik camera lens, which Kubrick used to film A Clockwork Orange. The camera also changes aspect ratio to reflect Haller's state of mind, "going narrower when he feels boxed in by the nefarious forces pursuing him."

The pilot featured a large amount of in-camera effects rather than just CGI, such as "upside-down day, so you're not just setting up a camera with two people talking. We're trying to tell the story with the camera and the visuals ... we're ambitious." Hawley admitted that it would be a challenge for the series' directors to maintain the quality of visuals and effects with much less time to film each episode than was allocated for the pilot; Hawley had 21 days to film the pilot, but the subsequent episodes were only scheduled 8 days of filming each. Some of these shoots ultimately had to be extended to 10 or 11 days filming to meet Hawley's vision, which he said were "not good calls to have but what are you going to do? It’s a huge show." Keller felt that the series' episodes were notably different from one another, calling the show a uniquely "director-driven show. It's almost like the episode prior doesn't set you up for how the next episode is going to go. It will connect. It will. But you have to experience it."

On filming in Vancouver, Hawley noted that many US television series are filmed there, and it "offers an amazing array of looks and feels and, obviously, a great crew base and everything." Sets for the series were constructed in a former supermarket warehouse in Burnaby, just southeast of Vancouver, including a "23,000-square-foot set" for the interior of Clockworks Mental Hospital. Wylie called this the most complicated set, and felt "trying to make a hospital feel fun is a perfect challenge." Exteriors were shot at the University of British Columbia "where they have a lot of that sixties and seventies brutalist architecture" that is often seen in government and institutional buildings.

Music

Jeff Russo was revealed to be composing the series' score in October 2016. Hawley stated that when first meeting with Russo about the series, he told the latter that he wanted the series to sound like Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, explaining "that album more than anything is really the soundscape of mental illness to some degree". Russo felt that "the important part is allowing the humanity of these characters to really shine through", and in addition to an orchestra he used "a bunch of old synthesizers" and "a lot of interesting sound design" to represent the "otherworldly" elements of the series. With the series' premiere, Russo reiterated that the "through-line" of the series is the relationship between Haller and Barrett, and said that a love story "lends itself to musical moments. It allows it to underscore the character." After his early meetings with Hawley, Russo developed some initial ideas for the score, and created three different themes to represent Haller. He adapted these ideas to fit the episodes once they had been edited.

A soundtrack album for the series was released digitally on February 24, 2017, on Amazon.com. A CD release is set to follow on March 24, from Lakeshore Records, with a vinyl release also planned for the album. All music by Jeff Russo:

Shared universe connections

Landgraf stated, in January 2016, that the series would be set in a universe parallel to the X-Men films where "the US government is in the early days of being aware that something called mutants exist but the public is not". He felt it was unlikely that characters would cross over between the show and films, but noted that this could change between then and the premiere of the series. That July, an article on Marvel.com referred to Legion as one of several characters joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), suggesting that Legion would be set in that shared universe like Marvel Television's other series. The next month, Singer said that Legion had actually been designed to fit into the X-Men universe, but also to stand alone, so "you wouldn't have to label" the relationship between the series and the films. He teased plans to have the series "relate to future X-Men movies".

At New York Comic-Con 2016, Donner said that the series is "far from the X-Men movies, but still lives in that universe. The only way for X-Men to keep moving forward is to be original and to surprise. And this is a surprise. It is very, very different." Hawley explained that because the series is depicting the title character's "subjective reality", it would not have to address any connections to the films straight away, noting that Fargo, which is connected to the 1996 film of the same name, at first "had to stand on its own feet" before exploring those connections more; "We have to earn the right to be part of this universe. My hope is we create something so strong that the people in the movie studio call and say they would be foolish enough not to connect these things." He did state that "you can't tell this story without" acknowledging that Legion is the son of Charles Xavier, who appears in the films. In regards to the MCU, Loeb stated that his involvement in the series was a sign that "bridges are being made" between Marvel and Fox, "but I don't want to make any promises ... Marvel heroes at their core are people who are damaged and are trying to figure out who they are in life. It doesn't matter whether or not they're X-Men, Tony Stark, Matt Murdock or Peter Parker ... If you start at a place as strong as David's character is and you have a storyteller like Noah, then it's Marvel. In that way, it is all connected."

Loeb and Donner stated in January 2017 that there were no plans to have Legion be the first in a series of connected shows on FX, like Marvel Television's group of interconnected Defenders series on Netflix, and that Legion and the X-Men series being developed for Fox are "not going to get in each other's way." Donner stated that the series was just a chance to bring an X-Men character to the screen who was not going to be used by the films. The producers hoped that audiences would watch the show because of its character-focus and the talents of Hawley and the cast, rather than to "see a Marvel franchise show." Donner also noted that having Hawley focus on Haller's perspective of reality rather than connections to the X-Men films allowed the series to avoid the convoluted continuity of the films, "because we play with so many different timelines, and we rebooted and not really rebooted and all that" throughout the films. Therefore, "the cinematic universe will not worry about Legion. They will not worry about these TV worlds at all. They will just continue in the way that they have been continuing."

Broadcast

Legion premiered on FX on February 8, 2017. In January 2016, Landgraf had said that he anticipated the series "would go on air" later that year, but that May, FX announced that the series would actually debut in early 2017. The next month, Marvel announced that Fox channels in over 125 countries had picked up their respective airing rights for the series, and that it would be aired using a "day-and-date" delivery system so that viewers around the world get the series on the same day. Fox Networks Group's sales division would also handle distribution of the series to third parties.

Marketing

At San Diego Comic-Con 2016, Marvel's Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada debuted the first trailer for Legion at his "Cup O'Joe" panel. Response to the trailer was positive, particularly its unique tone and visuals. Jacob Kastrenakes of The Verge described the trailer as eclectic, while Daniel Kreps of Rolling Stone called it manic. Kelly West at Cinema Blend called the trailer "all kinds of weird... in a good way", and positively compared it to a mix of Fight Club, Mr. Robot, and The Matrix. At New York Comic-Con later that year, the series held its own panel. Hawley, Loeb, Donner, and the series' main cast members were present to promote the series and screen the first half of the pilot episode. In response to the footage, Deadline.com's Dominic Patten said "we know three things for sure about Legion, it looks great, has top notch pacing and a killer choice of music." Nick Romano, recapping the panel for Entertainment Weekly, called the footage "just as chaotic as the mind of David Haller" and "almost Kubrickian in nature". "Based on what was screened," Romano added, "Legion already seems to have an erratic, hallucinatory tone and style that we’ve never seen before from a superhero TV series."

The series premiered at a red carpet event on January 26, 2017, in West Hollywood's Pacific Design Center. It was received enthusiastically by the audience, including Legion creator Bill Sienkiewicz. This was followed by an "immersive art exhibit" beginning the next day, named Legion Where?House. Running for three days in a Williamsburg warehouse, the free-to-the-public exhibit features unique artwork from Michael Murphy, Clemens Behr, Kumi Yamashita, and David Flores that looks to "challenge audiences’ minds": Murphy's sculpture, Suspension of Disbelief, features "hundreds of colorful utilitarian objects" hung from the ceiling that, when looked at from a specific spot, form the word "Legion"; Behr's installation, Doors, is "the corridor of a hospital that’s been blown apart", allowing visitors to walk "between fragments of rooms and doorways strewn with mirror fragments"; Yamashita created Lovers, silhouettes of David Haller and Syd Barrett that are separated by "thin pieces of board, preventing the figures from clasping hands", which "greets visitors at the show’s entrance"; and Flores' mural Legion, "being used as the key art for the show, depicts a fiery explosion emanating from David’s mind." Limited edition posters inspired by this artwork will be made available at 56 comic book stores across the US. The exhibit also includes a multimedia installation inspired by the series.

Additionally, five augmented reality (AR) murals were displayed as promotion for the series, one each in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Visitors to these sites could use the Blippar AR app to make the artwork "come to life", displaying "the power of David Haller’s mind". In London, the Century Club will host a cocktail bar on February 8 named The Mutant Lounge. Taking place over two, two-hour sessions, the event will be staffed by "mutants with superpowers", will be decorated to "recreate the world depicted in the series", and will be serving themed cocktails and canapes. Visitors will be able to watch the series' premiere before its debut in the UK, and "will also be treated to a number of surprises throughout the evening, with the aim of demonstrating that not everything is as it seems."

Ratings

Writing for Screen Rant, J.M. Brandt noted that FX extensively advertised the series, but was debuting the 90 minute (with commercials) premiere at 10pm on a Wednesday night, later than other genre "monster hits" like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. Brandt felt that the series' success would heavily depend on DVR viewing "to bolster what might be a likely smallish live audience". Following the series premiere, Legion's debut ratings were described as "OK, not great", in line with other cable series debuts, but lower than other high-profile FX debuts such as American Crime Story and Hawley's own Fargo.

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating with an average rating of 8.43/10 based on 57 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bold, intelligent, and visually arresting, Legion is a masterfully surreal and brilliantly daring departure from traditional superhero conceits." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 82 out of 100 based on 40 critics, indicating what the website considers to be "universal acclaim".

James Poniewozik of The New York Times called the series "sharply written, but its visual panache is the big surprise", praising the "groovy, 1960s-70s retro-futuristic look" and soundtrack. He concluded, "You will not always know what's real in Legion, but the thrills are 100 percent genuine." Writing for The Guardian, Emily Zemler said that Hawley's representation of Haller's mind and perspective on reality was "the strength of Legion ... It’s disjointed on purpose, and there’s something deeply satisfying in the edge that gives the viewer. It’s not a comfortable watch, but it doesn’t need to be." Zemler did warn that the series may be disorienting for viewers with no context or knowledge of the character's comic origins. David Bianco, reviewing the early episodes of the series for USA Today, found the show's villains to be its weakest link, praising Stevens, Keller, and Smart, and saying that though it "may initially seem confusing and frustrating... if any show deserves your patience, it’s Legion. Rewards await."

In his review on RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico praised the series for its focus on character, especially by having none of its characters "defined by their powers or their relation to a villain". He felt that the performances of Stevens and Keller were especially strong, but did think that the series took itself too seriously at times, lacking some of the humor usually found in the works of Hawley and Marvel. David Wiegand for the San Francisco Chronicle called Legion the best series of the new year, and praised the "resolutely novelistic" approach from Hawley. Wiegand felt, "It would be facile to say Legion is a comic book show for people who don’t like comic book shows. At the same time, it does have a far more complex thematic and psychological structure than most comic book shows." He praised the cast, especially Stevens, who he said "simply does the best work of his career". IndieWire's Ben Travers praised Legion as "the most intricate, intimate superhero story to date", highlighting its focus on "an emotional journey for our leading lad", the central love story that turns the show "from a 12 Monkeys mind-fuck to a Romeo & Juliet romance at the drop of a hat", and its cast, particularly Smart.

At Variety, Maureen Ryan stated that Stevens' performance "is the glue that keeps Legion from flying apart", and the relationship between Haller and Barrett provides "moments of solace in a viewing experience that can otherwise be exceptionally intense." After the first three episodes, Ryan said that "the challenge of Legion will be to make David’s quest for wholeness more than the sum of its flashy and often captivating parts. But the humane core of the drama offers a reason to hope for the best." Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter said, "It might seem weird to have a Marvel show on FX, or to have it star that upper-crust Brit from Downton Abbey, filtered through the creator of Fargo, but somehow it all works." He praised Stevens performance, and Hawley's "optical hijinks" even after the first episode, where the story starts to become more clear.

Writing for Slate, Sam Adams stated that Hawley's intention to deconstruct the superhero genre "doesn’t seem like an accurate description of what the series is doing, or even trying to do", calling the series "a well-appointed show: It’s handsomely shot, and smartly acted, and ingeniously constructed enough to suggest there’s something mind-blowing lurking at its center ... [but] it starts to feel like a show with a Rubik’s cube where its heart should be." David Sims at The Atlantic called Legion "the latest, and most indulgent, entrant" in a trend of "shows that rely far less on plot than on mood, that are crammed with stunning visuals and frustrating, circular dialogue." Sims praised the series' style and Stevens' performance, but felt that "it tries so hard to dazzle that it forgets to tell a meaningful story." The Washington Post's Hank Stuever also questioned the need for another series where "viewers find themselves trapped in the center of a tortured mind", asking, "Must it always be the viewer’s job to pick up the pieces?"