The first season of the American surrealist superhero thriller television series Legion premiered at the Pacific Design Center on January 26, 2017, before airing on FX from February 8 to March 29, totaling eight episodes. The series is based on the Marvel Comics character David Haller, a mutant diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age, who learns that his illness may actually be powerful psychic abilities. It was produced by FX Productions in association with Marvel Television, with Noah Hawley serving as showrunner.
Dan Stevens stars as David, with Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Irwin, Jeremie Harris, Amber Midthunder, Katie Aselton, and Jean Smart also starring in the season. FX ordered a pilot for Legion in October 2015, which Hawley wrote and directed. The show was picked up to series in May 2016. Filming took place in Vancouver, with a focus on in-camera effects over visual effects. Hawley wanted to show David as an "unreliable narrator", with the series mixing retro and modern designs, using unconventional filming and musical techniques, and being structured so the audience is unsure what is real. The narrative becomes clearer throughout the season as David gains knowledge, and the villainous Shadow King is revealed. The latter takes several forms, including one portrayed by Plaza.
The season received critical acclaim for its cast, particularly Stevens; Hawley's visuals and design; and the nonlinear, unreliable nature of the storytelling. Several critics did note that the latter aspects would not be for all viewers, and some criticized this as just the latest in a trend of series with unreliable narratives. On March 15, Legion was renewed for a second season.
Episodes
Cast and characters
Main Dan Stevens as David Haller Rachel Keller as Sydney "Syd" Barrett Aubrey Plaza as Lenny Busker Bill Irwin as Cary Loudermilk Jeremie Harris as Ptonomy Wallace Amber Midthunder as Kerry Loudermilk Katie Aselton as Amy Haller Jean Smart as Melanie Bird
Recurring Hamish Linklater as Clark David Selby as Brubaker Scott Lawrence as Henry Poole Jemaine Clement as Oliver Bird
Production
Development 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. By January 2016, FX President John Landgraf was confident that the series would be picked up by the network, probably for ten episodes; that May, FX ordered an eight-episode first season of Legion. Landgraf later 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.
Writing
Hawley first developed the idea of a series about Haller with Kinberg, after asking the question "is there an interesting show in this genre, and is there a character in that show?" He noted that series such as Marvel's Netflix shows and Preacher had not been released at that point. Hawley was specifically interested in exploring the character of David Haller because of his mental illness, and for the potential of the series to depict his unique mindset. He pitched the series as "a deconstruction of a villain ... and a love story".
Hawley's first thought when "looking at the genre is if we remove the genre, is there a compelling show you want to watch there?" He decided to center the series on the "idea of this epic love story and then putting the genre back into it" and layering elements such as mental illness and special abilities on that foundation Hawley's initial script for Legion was described by Donner 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." This was in part due to Hawley's desire to depict a "more existential exploration" and a "surreal or dreamlike quality where it's not just about running and kicking." He was inspired by the works of David Lynch to have the series' structure reflect the content of the story. Explaining, Hawley noted that the series' protagonist "doesn't know what's real and what's not real, [so] the audience should have the same experience". Hawley added that "there is this Alice in Wonderland quality to it, of a story within a story." To acclimatize audiences to the different style of the series, taking into consideration that the show was given a late airtime and so "it's on at the end of their very long day", Hawley had several of the early episodes begin with a "hypnotic quality ... often [with] a little ethereal voice-over, to give the sense that we are not rooted in a physical time and place." The intent was to put audiences "in the state of mind to watch Legion."
Discussing the increasing popularity of unreliable narrators in television, Hawley said that he did not want the audience thinking that the series is a puzzle that needs to be solved, saying, "We're going to take a character out of confusion into clarity and an audience out of mystery into clarity"; this is seen in the season's latter episodes, which are more narratively straightforward after Haller becomes "clear on what's going on [and] we are as well." A noted sequence in the season's penultimate episode sees Haller explain the series' backstory and events to himself (and the audience)—Haller was institutionalized not because of his abilities, but because his mind had been infected by the Shadow King. Hawley wanted to indicate to the audience that this would be the only sequence in the series so exposition heavy, and so it features Haller creating a class room environment within his mind to make the teaching purpose of the scene explicit.
Hawley did not want the audience to get to the end of the first run and have "no resolution of any kind", and felt that by creating a complete story with a clear ending related to Haller's conflict with the Shadow King, audiences who were confused by the show's complicated narrative would be able to "feel like they got it through the coherent story." Hawley plotted this story out to take only "eight hours", which is why he asked FX for a shorter first season of eight episodes. Hawley noted that the characters' conflict is a metaphor for an internal struggle, given the Shadow King's position as a parasite within Haller's mind. He was also more interested in setting up a longer-running rivalry than having the antagonist be a "villain-of-the-year", and so the season leaves the character to be an external threat to Haller in the second season.
Casting
The main cast for the season includes Dan Stevens as David Haller, Rachel Keller as Sydney "Syd" Barrett, Aubrey Plaza as Lenny Busker, Bill Irwin as Cary Loudermilk, Jeremie Harris as Ptonomy Wallace, Amber Midthunder as Kerry Loudermilk, Katie Aselton as Amy Haller, and Jean Smart as Melanie Bird. Several members of the cast noted that they joined the series due to Hawley's involvement. Unlike the rest of the cast, Irwin's Cary Loudermilk is not introduced until the second episode. Hawley had sought to cast Irwin during filming on the pilot, before the character's role had been written, and "had to pitch him the weird, crazy character dynamic and that the show is about memory and identity". Irwin agreed to join the project based on this conversation.
Plaza initially met with Hawley for the female lead role of Syd Barrett, but Hawley instead asked her to portray the character of Lenny, who in the script was a man that dies by the end of the first episode. Plaza insisted that the character's dialogue not be changed for her, instead choosing to play the character as both male and female. This led to Busker "making crass remarks about women and muttering vintage phrases". In regards to the character's death, Hawley promised Plaza that "Lenny would be going on a very, very interesting journey." The character begins appearing as an apparition in Haller's mind, with Plaza saying that "Lenny is very important to David's story." In "Chapter 7", this apparition is revealed to be one form of the powerful mutant Amahl Farouk / Shadow King. Other forms that the character takes on in David's mind include the Devil with the Yellow Eyes, portrayed by Quinton Boisclair; the Angry Boy, a manifestation of the title character from the book The World's Angriest Boy in the World, portrayed by stunt woman Devyn Dalton; and King, David's childhood dog.
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. In February 2017, David Selby announced that he would appear in 3 episodes of the season. He portrays Brubaker, a member of Division 3. Also, Ellie Araiza was cast in the recurring role of Philly, Haller's previous girlfriend. Other recurring actors in the show include Hamish Linklater as Clark, an interrogator for Division 3; Brad Mann as mutant fighter Rudy; Mackenzie Gray as Walter / The Eye; and Scott Lawrence as psychiatrist Henry Poole.
Design Production designer Michael Wylie, who had previously worked on Marvel Television's Agent Carter, found designing for Legion to be more flexible than other series, due to the lack of set continuity from scene to scene, though Hawley was very specific about his ideas for the series, and provided Wylie with a 'lookbook' for the show when first interviewing him for the job. To 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 the "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.