The FX television show Legion is having a screening and Q&A in their first visit to SDCC. Legion is about David Haller, a mutant with vast psychic abilities. At the SDCC event were cast members Dan Stevens, Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Jean Smart, Bill Irwin, Jeremie Harris and Amber Midthunder. Also there were, show creator and executive producer/writer/director Noah Hawley, executive producer John Cameron, X-Men franchise veteran producer Lauren Shuler Donner, executive producer and head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb.
The first news of the panel was that season two will have 10 episodes, where season one only had eight. At the beginning of the panel the “Boléro” sequence from the penultimate episode in March was shown. This sequence was in a silent movie style. About “Boléro”, Noah Hawley said “I was always looking for ways to create something that just felt bigger and more emotionally relevant. The moment you put the silent movie cards on it, it becomes bigger, because silent movies had that sense of scale to them.”
More big news was that a new actor is being brought on to play the Shadow King/Amahl Farouk for season two. Said Taghmaoui has been cast in this role. Recently he was in Wonder Woman as Sameer.
Jeph Loeb said about Hawley and Cameron, “Noah and John just had a take that was so unique and wonderful,” He continued saying, “I always joke that Noah is Legion. He’s creating a world inside his head.”
Plaza who started out playing Lenny Busker, but was revealed to be the Shadow King had one of the stand out roles of the show. When asked about herb character’s journey she said, “It was a wild ride, man. It was really fun. I kind of knew the broad strokes of where Lenny would end up, but I didn’t know how I would get there.” For the movements of her role Plaza said,”It was really fun for me to figure out how a psychopath moves around.”
Talking about the unique relationship between Cary Loudermilk and Kerry Loudermilk, Midthunder said, “I find myself describing them more as siblings, and I find you describe them more as the parent dynamic.” “She has a lot to learn,” Irwin added. “She knows plenty!”
Keller, whose character Sydney has struggled with a power that isolates her, is hoping that moving on her character will see the good her power can do and not the curse.
Harris feels that his character Ptonomy Wallace is “definitely sitting on a lot of trauma. He’s fearless when it comes to expressing his opinion because he’s seen so much.”
When asked if the show will include more flashbacks to David’s youth, Hawley answered, “We know his story pretty well now, but we don’t know everybody’s story really well. I think there are other people we may see what brought them to this moment.”
There is also the chance that Professor X will make an appearance in the future.
Legion will return to FX in February 2018