Legion showrunner addresses Professor X rumors for next season

After finally acknowledging Professor Charles Xavier in Legion, the question over whether or not the leader of the X-Men might appear in the show has resurfaced.

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the finale of Legion.]

Although Legion made it adamantly clear that Xavier was David Haller’s father in the ninth episode, the finale saw David rid himself of the Shadow King. Watching the Shadow King leave David’s body and transfer to Oliver’s provided a second of relief as David’s issues seemed to come to an end for a brief period. With David in the clear to pursue other interests and family ties, one of the questions that came up in a roundtable with showrunner Noah Hawley was whether or not Xavier would play a crucial role in the second season.

“It becomes a corporate conversation with the film studios and the characters they want to protect,” Hawley said. “If we wanted to have Professor X, whether that’s Patrick Stewart or James McAvoy, that's a conversation that needs to take place.

“I certainly need to start thinking about it.”

Hawley added that he purposely designed Legion as a show that could exist without the inclusion of Xavier. In many ways, he added, Legion works better without the immediate references to the universe. Legion is a show about one man coming to terms with his abilities and trying to battle the internal demons — both literal and figurative — he’s faced with. Adding X-Men characters would admittedly take away from that universe, Hawley said.

“The origin story is the same as the way it was in the comics,” Hawley said. “We know from the movies that the timeline has changed and that the X-Men have all these old stories. There's certainly main universes in which Professor X could be David's father. I don't really feel like I've limited myself or have lost that ability to make this world it's own world because we now know who David's father is.

“It’s hard to know going forward as to what the second season will entail, but viewers responded to the show because of the emotional grounding.”

Patrick Stewart has previously said he’s interested in joining the show. In an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Stewart told Legion’s Dan Stevens (David) that he would love to appear on the show, if Hawley would have him.

Whether or not Professor X does make an appearance — or even a cameo — is a question that will have to wait until the second season premieres. Hawley told journalists that Legion would return around the same time next year and would extent to 10 episodes instead of eight.