Dan Stevens and Aubrey Plaza in Legion. Courtesy: Marvel Entertainment.
ForeignEditoriaL
The cast and crew discuss the FX series at New York Comic Con.
Pink Floyd is woven into the very fabric of the upcoming FX/Marvel series Legion. When show creator and executive producerNoah Hawleymet with composerJeff Russo, he remembers saying that he wanted the show to sound likeDark Side of the Moon, the rock band’s seminal 1973 album. Another slick tribute? Naming a character Syd Barrett, after the late founding member of the band.
“That album more than anything is really the soundscape of mental illness to some degree,“ Hawley told a packed audience during a panel for the show at New York Comic Con. FX was there to show the first half hour of the series, which already looks like a thrilling take on the famous X-Men antihero.
Legiontells the story of David Charles Haller (played by a winningDan Stevens), the son of powerful mutant Professor X. Tormented by the sounds of voices in his head, Haller is diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed in a mental hospital. However, those voices are actually a mark of his mutant abilities — he just might be one of the most powerful mutants of all time. The show also starsAubrey Plaza,Rachel Keller, Jeremie Harris,Katie Aselton, Amber Midthunder, andBill Irwin.
Stevens loves playing the “truly insane character,” he told the crowd, adding it’s the “most comfortable costume I’ve ever had in life.”
“No dumb horns . . . sorry, I have to teaseTom Hiddleston,” he joked, a nod to Hiddleston’sThorcharacter Loki.
During the Q&A portion, a fan asked if the Professor X connection would be teased out over the course of the show. “I don’t think you can really tell the story without that element to it,” Hawley said. “There’s a wheelchair in the first scene.”
Considering the breadth of theX-Menuniverse, another fan asked if the show would ever feature guest stars from the films, a question that inspired some conspiratorial responses.
“Probably not. But you never know,” said executive producerLauren Shuler Donner.
“Wouldn’t that be great?” Marvel TV chiefJeff Loebadded. Earlier in the panel, he also coyly assured a fan that theLegionuniverse would connect to other Marvel projects. “The fact that I’m sitting here is an indication of bridges that are being made.”
“We gotta earn the right to be part of that universe,” Hawley said in response to the guest star question. “My hope is to create something that is so strong that the people at the movie studio call up and go, ‘We’d be foolish not to connect these two things.’”
“We all know the reality of the expense of that, and a lot of corporations would have a lot of agendas,” he continued. “All we can do is make the best show possible.”
Courtesy: Vanity Fair