FX and Marvel’s mind-bending superhero drama is back tomorrow for Season 2.
Get a glimpse into it with this interview with showrunner Noah Hawley. ‘Legion‘s sophomore run kicks off with telekinetic mutant David Haller reuniting with the Summerland crew after he got zapped by that mysterious orb at the end of Season 1. To him, it feels like it happened yesterday, but he’s actually been gone a full year. He’s not really sure where he’s been, and he’s not really sure where he is now, either, entering a confusing world populated by women with mustaches, heavily armed child soldiers and an enigmatic new boss wearing a basket on his head. “Really, this season, at least for the first half, [David] is the sane man in an insane world,” Hawley says, adding that our bewildered hero serves as “a surrogate for us, in a lot of ways,” piecing together what exactly happened while he was gone.
We learn along with David that Summerland is now working alongside former baddies Division 3 in an effort to track down the Shadow King, currently taking the form of the on-the-lam Oliver Bird and Lenny. “The interests of our heroes and of Division 3 are aligned at this moment,” Hawley concedes, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean they always will be. We’re going to explore that.” Meanwhile, Oliver’s absence sends his wife Melanie into a downward spiral of drug use and depression, Hawley teases: “Jean Smart is such a phenomenal actress that I thought, ‘Let’s take her to some darker and more interesting places.’” With Oliver gone, Melanie even starts to question whether these genetic mutations are a blessing or a curse: “She’s not the peppy optimist like, ‘It’s a gift.’ She’s like, ‘No, it ruins your life, these powers.’”
The one thing fans can count on in Season 2, though, is David’s enduring love for Syd, Hawley says: “I wouldn’t say it’s a show where you can’t trust anything, because I do think there’s a love story here, and this emotional trust that I want you to maintain… not that we won’t test it.” Indeed, David and Syd’s bond is tested early on in the premiere, with her feeling abandoned by him during the year he was trapped in that orb. “365 days of waiting can really screw you up,” Hawley notes. “There is some trust that he has to earn back.”
Legion expands from eight episodes to ten in Season 2, and Hawley says those two extra hours allowed him to take some narrative side roads this year and explore his characters more in depth. “There are a couple of hours that are meditations in a way, of using the genre to really solve these characters, in a way that’s not necessarily part of the overall plot,” he hints. “But they solve the characters, and that enriches the show.”’
Via TVLINE
The Book to Screen Club 