X-Men movie maestro Bryan Singer discusses how FX spinoff show Legion walks a blurred line between properties.
FX’s upcoming television series Legion represents the first proper live-action manifestation of Fox’s X-Men movie universe. However, the nature of the show’s relationship with the venerable tentpole films has evoked mixed messages with some implications of canonical connectivity, despite previous comments from FX’s CEO Landgraf implying the opposite. Now, the long-running overseer of the X-Men films Bryan Singer comments on Legion’s prospective shared universe dynamic.
At the Edinburgh Television Festival in London, Bryan Singer, along with longtime collaborator in 21st Century Fox Networks Group CEO Peter Rice, offered some interesting details on Legion and its thus far ambiguous connectivity to the often-reset, notoriously labyrinthine continuity of Fox’s X-Men film series. Serving as an executive producer on the Noah Hawley-created show, Singer discussed its place in relation to the lucrative 16-year-old film franchise he helped create. As Singer explains (via The Hollywood Reporter):
"[Legion is] part of the X-Men universe, but when you watched it, you wouldn't have to label it, it could exist completely on its own."
While Singer states that Legion will carry a “really ambitious and fun and very unique storyline,” he also implies that it brandishes connections to its franchise roots. In fact, this dynamic will be imminently echoed by another “planned” television project that similarly “will relate to future X-Men movies.” That detail is intriguing in its own right, since that seemingly refers to Hellfire, the television project centering on the X-Men’s sinister, super-powered, finery-clad mutant adversaries the Hellfire Club (depicted in 2011’s X-Men: First Class), which was presumed to be a lost cause. Of course, for all we know, Singer might have accidentally referenced another, completely unknown gestating television project.
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Legion’s connectivity to the X-Men– at least as far as the original Marvel Comics story is concerned – centers on the idea that its titular character, also known as David Haller (Dan Stevens) is the son of mutant sage Professor Charles Xavier and scientist Moira MacTaggert. David's manifesting psychic mutant powers lead him to believe that visions he regularly experiences prove that he’s going insane. Notably, the show’s Comic-Con teaser trailer did not reveal that specific branch of connectivity. However, Singer’s boss and cohort Peter Rice does comment on the notable differences between the film and television medium, which implies that David Haller’s arc will be rolled out at a decidedly deliberate pace, stating:
"Movies are ultimately narrative stories. I find TV is ultimately a character journey.” Singer also chimed in, stating, “It's not a director's medium, it's a writer's medium. A film is mine."
Thus, David Haller’s mental and physical journey from a state of discord and disbelief about his powers – apparently connected to Katie Aselton’s mysterious character Amy – will also show its X-Men stripes in the way the story connects to similar movie tropes about being an outcast in a world where mutants are feared and reviled, only refracted through a much different lens of the slow-burn, explorative television medium. However, that is not to say that the show won’t drop an occasional reference to mutant vigilantes and figures like Charles Xavier and Magneto. In fact, the Comic-Con trailer does, indeed, drop the “m-word” that Fox's peer rivals at Marvel Studios militantly swapped with the word, “Inhuman” throughout its sprawling multimedia properties.
Legion will arrive on FX, showcasing mental mutant tumult sometime in early 2017.
