David Haller’s struggle against the Shadow King and his own mind isn’t over quite yet. FX ordered Legion season 3 last year in a surprise move, before season 2 had ended. We say ‘surprise’ because the ratings had not been great.
It turns out that season 3 will be the last time we see Dan Stevens and the rest of the mutants doing their weird, apocalyptic waltz. FX CEO John Landgraf announced the news at the TCA press tour this week. Apparently, this was always the plan, according to Variety. Series creator Noah Hawley had seemingly pitched the series as being three seasons long.
The show is a loose collaboration between prestige cable network FX and Marvel. Legion doesn’t fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the TV universe, the comic universe, or really any other universe at all. It’s entirely its own weird thing as envisioned by Hawley. It just also happens to feature Marvel comics character David Haller a.k.a. ‘Legion,’ who may be the most powerful mutant in the world, or just insane…or both.
Legion looks and sounds like no other comic book adaptation on television. Hawley took the character of David Haller, created by Marvel Comics’ writers Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, and placed him in a television origin story filled with striking, at-times difficult to comprehend visuals that match Haller’s emotional and mental state.
Haller (Dan Stevens) spent his childhood suffering from schizophrenic-like conditions and moved from psychiatric facility to psychiatric facility until he met his love interest Syd (Rachel Keller) at Clockworks Psychiatric Facility. Syd ushers him into a world of helpful mutants at ‘Summerland’ who reveal to David that he might not be insane after all, but rather an extraordinarily powerful mutant who has an unwelcome guest in his mind.
Legion season 2 has expanded the world of the show a bit, introducing a semi-corporeal version of Amahl Farouk a.k.a. The Shadow King (Navid Negahban) and a new version of Lenny (Aubrey Plaza).
There’s no telling what Legion season 3 is building towards, but it’s a good bet that there will be dancing.