We’ve seen the teasers, we’ve seen the cast, and we’ve seen what showrunner Noah Hawley can do with FX’s Fargo, but now his next TV series, Legion, has a premiere date and a new trailer, offering more answers to this mind-bender of a show.
Legion, based on the telepathic and telekinetic mutant from Marvel comics lore, will debut on the network on Wednesday, February 8th at 10 p.m. EST.
Dan Stevens (Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast) portrays David Haller, who is the son of Professor Xavier in the comics — something, also, the producers confirm cannot be ignored in the small-screen adaptation. But here, he’s also a very troubled man whose put in a mental institution for schizophrenia, when really the voices and visions he hears and sees are part of his chaotic but powerful abilities.
In the new trailer, we learn more about what’s going on and that this story won’t be confined to the trippy hospital setting. There are government agencies called Divisions that are tasked with studying and tracking down mutants, and if they find the subjects can’t be controlled, they’re killed. In David’s case, that means convincing him into buying the whole ruse of mental instability. But he’s able to escape and find those who are able to help him realize his potential.
Watch the trailer below.
In addition to Stevens, the cast is rounded out by Aubrey Plaza as Lenny, Rachel Keller as Syd, Katie Aselton as David’s sister Amy, Jean Smart as Melanie Bird, Jeremy Harris as Ptonomy, Amber Midthunder as Kerry, and Bill Irwin as Cary. When FX brought the first half of the pilot episode to New York Comic Con, some of the characters were conveniently absent from the footage, but we’re seeing more glimpses of them as the marketing campaign revs up.
One thing seems clear: for as chaotic as David’s mind is, the show looks to blur reality by embracing that psychedelia.
Here is the extended synopsis for Legion:
Legion, based on the Marvel Comics by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, is the story of David Haller (Dan Stevens), a troubled young man who may be more than human. Diagnosed as schizophrenic as a child, David has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. Now in his early 30s and institutionalized once again, David loses himself in the rhythm of the structured regimen of life in the hospital: breakfast, lunch, dinner, therapy, medications, sleep. David spends the rest of his time in companionable silence alongside his chatterbox friend Lenny (Aubrey Plaza), a fellow patient whose life-long drug and alcohol addiction has done nothing to quell her boundless optimism that her luck is about to change. The pleasant numbness of David’s routine is completely upended with the arrival of a beautiful and troubled new patient named Syd (Rachel Keller). Inexplicably drawn to one another, David and Syd share a startling encounter, after which David must confront the shocking possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees may actually be real.
A haunted man, David escapes from the hospital and seeks shelter with his sister Amy (Katie Aselton). But Amy’s concern for her brother is trumped by her desire to protect the picture perfect suburban life she’s built for herself. Eventually, Syd guides David to Melanie Bird (Jean Smart), a nurturing but demanding therapist with a sharp mind and unconventional methods. She and her team of specialists – Ptonomy (Jeremie Harris), Kerry (Amber Midthunder) and Cary (Bill Irwin) – open David’s eyes to an extraordinary new world of possibilities.
