X-Men Drama Legion Ordered to Series at FX

LOS ANGELES: FX Networks has greenlit a first season of Legion, based on the X-Men comics character David Haller.

FX Productions and Marvel Television will co-produce the eight-episode first season, which starts production this summer with a debut set for early 2017. Noah Hawley (Fargo) will serve as an executive producer and showrunner.

Legion introduces the story of Haller, who has struggled with mental illness since he was a teenager. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, Haller has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. After a strange encounter with a fellow patient, he’s confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees might be real.

The series will star Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), Rachel Keller (Fargo), Jean Smart (Fargo), Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation), Jeremie Harris (A Walk Among the Tombstones), Amber Midthunder (Hell or High Water), Katie Aselton (The League) and Bill Irwin (Interstellar).

“We’ve come to expect excellence from Noah Hawley and with Legion he has delivered another major creative achievement,” said Nick Grad, co-president of original programming at FX Networks and FX Productions. “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, driven by incredible performances from Dan Stevens, Aubrey Plaza, Jean Smart, Rachel Keller and the rest of the cast. We join our producing partners at Marvel in congratulating the creative team for what they’ve accomplished and are as excited as the fans for the premiere of Legion’s first season.”

“Marvel Television is thrilled to not only have our first partnership with FX go to series, but working with the enormously talented Noah Hawley makes it even better,” said Executive Producer Jeph Loeb. “From the first time we heard Noah’s vision to his exceptional script and cast through the extraordinary filming of the pilot, we knew the series would be incredible.”