Now those damn mutants are everywhere. As if conquering cinemas wasn't enough, the franchise is en route to television in the eight-episode first season of Legion, which stars Dan Stevens of Downtown Abbey and The Guest.
The project, from Fargo’s Noah Hawley, focuses on Stevens' David Haller, who, from his teenage years, has had to deal with mental illness. In and out of hospitals over the years with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, he comes to realize that the visions he experiences and the voices in his head might actually be real. This, naturally, leads to adventures of the meta kind, though not necessarily via traditional superhero tropes. While the show had been commissioned by US cable network FX as a pilot, the result has impressed bosses enough to warrant series status.
Muses FX's Nick Grad, “We’ve come to expect excellence from Noah Hawley and with Legion he has delivered another major creative achievement. 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."
Co-starring are Rachel Keller, Jean Smart, Aubrey Plaza, Jeremie Harris, Amber Midthunder, Katie Aselton and Bill Irwin. The series is expected to debut in early 2017.