David Haller (Dan Stevens) is going to be walking a very fine and dangerous line when Legion returns for its highly-anticipated second season.
FX’s trippy and prestigious X-Men drama will debut season two in April with “Chapter 9,” and when viewers reunite with David after he was abducted by a mysterious orb in the season one finale, things will look and feel very different thanks to a massive time jump. One year will have passed for everyone else, but for David, the events of the finale will feel like just yesterday. What occurred during that year will have massive effects on David and everyone around him, and might alter the course of whether he’ll be one of the good guys and remain a hero … or actually become one of the most powerful villains ever.
“If season one was about an insane man in a sane world, I was interested in looking at David as a sane man in an insane world,” Legion creator Noah Hawley says during the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association press tour panel. “There is this time jump for him to come back and suddenly the world is a much different place. I was interested in looking at a mass psychology and the way that mental illness can also be cultural in a way. We’re also exploring with [David], he’s on a journey here in which in the language of this world you have heroes and villains and it’s not determined yet where he’s going to end up. A lot of that is going to be determined by what’s holding him on the good path with his relationship with Sydney [Rachel Keller] and his experience with [The Shadow King, Amahl] Farouk.”
And while parasite villain The Shadow King ended season one by taking over Oliver’s (Jemaine Clement) body, when season two begins, viewers will finally get to meet Amahl face-to-face … in his own body, and not inside someone else’s mind. While Wonder Woman star Said Taghmaoui was initially cast to play Amahl Farouk in season two, Hawley revealed that the role had been recast for The Shadow King’s debut in the second episode of season two after screening that game-changing first scene with Amahl and David for the critics gathered.
“That’s Navid Negahban who’s playing Amahl Farouk for us,” Hawley says once the tense and epic scene concluded. “He came on board. We didn’t have a great fit with Said [Taghmaoui] and he was good enough to come join us to play against Dan and he’s great.”
But just because Amahl Farouk will be seen with his real face, that doesn’t let his previous vessels David, Oliver or Lenny (Aubrey Plaza) off the hook. “He wore different faces and certainly this season we’re now meeting him for the first time,” Hawley says. “That doesn’t mean he won’t continue to hide and continue to use people.”
And just because David finally got some answers about his mental health, and viewers got some information about who The Shadow King is and what powers David has, that doesn’t mean Legion is going to lose its style in season two. Thanks to the one year time jump, Hawley has more questions than answers.
“The first year we started with some confusion about does he have schizophrenia; does he have these powers; what’s this monster he’s seeing? Over the course of the year, as he got clarity, we got clarity,” Hawley says. “I didn’t want season two to be all clarity all the time so we built in a time jump and some things where we can muddy the waters again. I think the mystery and trying to figure things out is hopefully part of the joy of watching it.”
What are you most excited to see from Legion season two? Tweet me at @SydneyBucksbaum and let’s geek out together!
Images: FX
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