The X-Men series of films has kept 20th Century Fox in the black for years, and is arguably what started our current fascination with Marvel movies. The franchise is about to take form on the TV screen once again, but this time, it won't be animated. That's right, there is live-action version of the mutants coming to the FX network, but it isn't what you might think. This is what is known about Legion, a series based on the X-Men with its release date, cast, and news.
If you are hoping that the world of the X-Men will somehow continue on television, this is not the case. No, there will not be any Mystique, Wolverine, Magneto, or any of the other iconic characters, at least not on the first episode. The show's imdb page has some veteran actors such as Dan Stevens, Aubrey Plaza, Jean Smart, and Rachel Keller. None of the characters sound familiar to those who know X-Men comics and films, except for David Haller.
In the comics, David Haller is the son of Charles Xavier, aka Professor X, the X-Men's founder, mentor, and leader. David is also known as a mutant named Legion who has a form of dissociative identity disorder with each of his personalities displaying different powers. In fact, he has quite a few distinct personalities, which make him a very powerful mutant and anti-hero in the world of X-Men.
According to CinemaBlend, the show looks to take a different direction as the David character is experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations, and therapy is not working. Speaking of a different direction, the entire X-Men universe on the Legion show is going to be different, as it sounds like the existence of mutants will only be known to the government as well as the mutants themselves.
Therefore, Legion takes place in some kind of alternate universe where perhaps the X-men characters will make an appearance, but they won't be any relation to the ones from the movies. I'm not certain if FX can get the rights to X-Men characters, but at least it will make sense that they will be played by different actors.
In a way, it looks like this is some attempt to bring comic books again to television, again. It's like how DC comics brought Arrow and Flash and other characters their own series on the CW network, but the adventures of these characters are not related to the movie projects that DC and Warner Brothers have concerning the upcoming Justice League movies.
It should be an interesting to see how the Legion series plays out, and the full eight-episode season will begin shooting this summer in Canada. It looks like FX plans for an early 2017 release date for a mid-season show that could easily get a second season with the X-Men fanbase.
