Fox Casts Legion TV Series Actors

Casting news for the upcoming Legion TV series has become known with Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens set to play David Haller.

In addition, Deadline reports Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) will play David’s friend Lenny, who despite a life of drugs and alcohol abuse, knows that any day now her life is gonna turn around, which gives her the likeable energy of the impossible optimist despite her rough demeanor.

Jean Smart (Designing Women) is playing Melanie, a nurturing, demanding therapist with a sharp mind and unconventional methods. Keller plays the self-sufficient and street-smart Syd, who uses her sharp and prickly demeanor to protect her soft core, because even though it makes her a sucker and puts her at risk, she still believes in happily ever after.

Rachel Keller (Fargo) is said to play the female lead, described as a scrappy, optimistic woman in her 20s. Details about her potential powers and specific role are unclear.

The plot of Legion is described as:

Legion introduces the story of David Haller (Stevens), based on the Marvel comics character Legion, the son of X-Men founder Charles Xavier. Since he was a teenager, David has struggled with mental illness. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, he has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. A haunted man, David is getting tired of finding his way back to sanity and is about to give up when he meets the girl of his dreams, a fellow patient. After the strange encounter, he’s confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees might be real.

It’s also previously been said the Legion TV series will not be a part of the X-Men movie universe.

Fargo‘s Noah Hawley wrote the pilot and serves as an executive producer along with X-Men’s Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg; Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb is also on board as an EP as is Jim Chory and John Cameron.