X-Men inspired ‘Legion’ and ‘Hellfire’ coming to TV! What we know!

With news about two X-Men franchise TV shows, Legion and Hellfire, being reported last year, let’s go over what we can expect!

Marvel is working with Fox to bring fans a TV series titled Hellfire, and with FX to create Legion. Both shows were announced last year, however, it is Legion that has had interesting development news revealed about it.

Legion

Fans of the X-Men franchise will be familiar with the titular character. His real name is David Charles Heller, and is the son of Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Haller. He is a very powerful mutant, and the fact that he has a severe mental illness, including a form of dissociative identity disorder, makes it tough to control his power. Each of his distinct personalities possesses different abilities. He has been shown to exhibit telekinesis, telepathy, pyrokinesis, time-manipulation, etc. depending on the personality that takes control over him.

According to IGN, Legion will debut sometime this year. But for those of you who were excited about the new series being connected to the X-Men film franchise, I have some disappointing news to share. While David will still be Professor Xavier’s son, the story is set in a parallel universe. That’s not to say we won’t get to see familiar X-Men, it just means that the show itself won’t have anything to do with the events in the films. While people know about mutants in the film series, in Legion the US government is in the early days of discovering that mutants exist.

David will be seen being diagnosed with schizophrenia and he has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals since a teen. After a strange encounter with a patient in one of the institutions, he realizes that the visions he has been seeing, and the voices inside his head might actually be real.

As far as casting is concerned, according to MovieWeb, Fargo actress Rachel Keller has been cast as the female lead in an undisclosed role. Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) has been cast as David Haller. Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) will be playing Lenny, a friend of David’s. Her character is someone who is trying to turn her life around even though she has struggles with addiction to alcohol and drugs.

Noah Hawley is executive producing the show along with Lauren Shuler, Bryan Singer, Simon Kinberg, Jeph Loeb, James Chory, and John Cameron. Legion is currently in its pilot development stage, and there has been no announcement of an official air date.

Hellfire

Hellfire is being produced by 20^th Century Fox Television and Marvel Television. 20^th Century Fox will be handling the physical production. The show is set in the late 1960’s, and the story will be about a young Special Agent who finds out that a woman with extraordinary abilities is working with a secret society of millionaires, the Hellfire Club, to take over the globe.

There has been no news about whether or not Hellfire will be linked to the X-Men film franchise. The late 1960’s setting does make it a possible spin-off of X-Men: First Class in which members of the Hellfire Club were the major antagonists.

There is some fan speculation that Emma Frost is the woman mentioned in the synopsis of the upcoming show. She died between First Class and Days of Future Past. But due to the time period the show is set in, she can still be alive, if a connection to the films is to be made.

Hellfire is being executive produced by Bryan Singer, Simon Kinberg, and Lauren Shuler. A new showrunner is being searched for the project. There has been no official news about casting, and it is uncertain if it will air this year like Legion.

The Hellfire Club has had numerous members over the years since its debut in 1980. So, it will be interesting to see which characters are chosen when casting is revealed.

What do you think of the upcoming X-Men franchise TV shows? Which one are you looking forward to the most? Let us know!

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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