FX's "Legion"

I'm not sure how all the contracts are ironed out, but I would guess that any characters Fox has the rights to, they can do whatever they want with. The question I've always seen come up is hashing out which characters they have the rights to. Who they have to pay is a whole other ball of wax, but I'm looking at what they have the rights to.

But if Fox makes "Legion" and has the rights to those characters, and Fox also has the rights to X-Men characters, I would think they can combine the two if they want. Hence, a couple of sort of second tier X-Men characters *did* appear in Deadpool, right? I don't know how far Fox's rights go. Can they do a crossover with any random other franchise they own the rights to? Does their old agreement with Marvel allow Fox to do, say, an "X-Men vs. Planet of the Apes" movie? I dunno.

But I have the impression the only reason Fox has the rights to the "Legion" character is because he's part of the "X-Men" universe package they have the rights to (Marvel is not giving out rights to any characters to rival studios since they've started their own movie studio as I recall), so since "Legion" is technically in terms of rights issues an "X-Men spinoff", I would think Professor X or whomever *could* appear in the show if Fox wanted to do that. There are a bunch of reasons they wouldn't want to do that, but I believe the impression I got from a few early reviews that "Legion" *can't* use X-Men characters is not necessarily true.

 

Considering how well versed fans seem to be about the different studios owning the rights to various Marvel characters, I'm kind of surprised that I've seen folks seem surprised that Marvel/Disney hasn't made a "Hulk" standalone movie. I had no idea until recently that while Marvel holds the film rights to the character, Universal still has distribution rights to any standalone "Hulk" films. So, continuing Marvel/Disney's streak of purposely kneecapping Marvel stuff they regret giving the rights away for years and years ago, they just don't make "Hulk" movies because Universal would get a piece of the action.

 

I suspect the Ang Lee movie was such a disaster that no one wants to even think about bringing the idea up. Even bringing in Edward Norton for the reboot wasn't enough to wash away the memory. I suspect the franchise is cursed. I'm surprised that anyone could be surprised at Disney's decision making process, though.

At last count there were about 10 or so MCU titles in production. By the time we're all finished with what's on their plate, I doubt anyone will be hungry for more.

 

I don't see that, its all owned by the same company. From what I have heard Noah Hawley wanted to do superheroes/mutants his way, and to that end this series does not exist in the x-men universe as such but in a parallel universe (I know, even more confusing). So they are free to create whatever world they want.

I can't see the X-Men turning up but they could use versions of certain characters.

 

Well this is a parallel world, so it's all new to an extent. But in the comics the government have worked with the X-Men. I mean there are mutants in the Avengers and so on, so the good mutants are treated like normal superheroes, but with some trust issues. But SHIELD work with the X- Men, it's not like they are all in hiding or something. Storm married Black Panther in the comics.

 

Is David the same character that was 'Mutant X' aka 'Proteus' from comics #126-128? Been a loooong time since I read those comics. I started with 131 and found my first comic book store to buy the issues I'd missed before that.

 

That's a fantastic story, one of my all-time favourites, but they are not the same people.

Legion is Professor X's son, and first appeared in the New Mutants in 1985.

Proteus is Moira MacTaggart's son, and first appeared in 1979.

It's very easy to get them mixed up, they have similar powers and are the sons of other X-Men. And not to be confused with Stryker's son Jason in X2, who also had mind powers.

BTW, if you want to read the best story about mind-altering superheroes then Alan Moore's run on Captain Britain featured the brilliant Mad Jim Jaspers storyline.

 

The classic Legion story, IMO, is Legion Quest which leads into the Age of Apocalypse. Definitely worth reading for anyone who enjoyed the show. The Age of Apocalypse Omnibus collects all this material.

 

Well this has become my very favorite confusing show. over the season even though I didn't know what was going on most of the time. Ep 7 was my favorite.

 

Is there an episode synopsis guide online that anyone has found? I watched episode 5 last night (which others here seemed to love) and wanted to give up from exasperated confusion.

 

Welcome to the Sci Fi Fantasy world of all things X and Mutants

 

Saying you were confused and exasperated at 'Legion' is like saying you laughed at 'How I Met Your Mother' or were scared at 'Stranger Things.' That's kind of the sweet spot the writers are aiming for. Somewhere out there you just made Noah Hawley smile. You just have to decide for yourself if the show is an incomprehensible mess or an incomprehensible work of genius.

Say, who here's looking forward to the new episodes of 'Twin Peaks'? I expect to be entertainingly confounded a whole lot, myself.

 

Great first season. Bring on two.

 

I'm bummed I don't have Showtime anymore. Would love to see it.

 

I can only relate it to The Prisoner as far as tv series where you aren't given all the information and things are left open to interpretation. Also a bit in line with Watchmen so Alan Moore is a good name to mention. I missed any Captain Britain but had some Doctor Who and became a regular Swamp Thing reader for awhile. I always loved the X-Men comics where they spent more time in regular clothing and remember wishing they would just put the costumes away, and in a way that's what this show does! There were some sf stories by A.E. Van Vogt and Theodore Sturgeon I'd read that sort of prepared me for the mutant/homo-superior feared by us old homo-sapien has beens.

 

It most certainly isn't an incomprehensible mess. Most episodes did have a disorienting quality about them, which is not only understandable given what's really happening in his mind, but necessary to tell the story. But the disorienting aspects were also tempered with real clues as to what might be going on, which became more obvious somewhere around the midpoint of the season.

As to it being 'an incomprehensible work of genius', I would agree that it was a work of genius, but it wasn't incomprehensible at all. I wonder how people would perceive the show if they binge watched the whole season.

 

I'm being flippantly facetious - of course there's a coherent narrative under the style.

 

Can you send it to me? I need a map.

 

Well, that's the thing I was wondering about. It has often been put about that the common wisdom is that they don't make a "Hulk" movie because of mixed (or bad) results from past "Hulk" films. But it appears that at least part (if not most, considering Ruffalo's Hulk seems to be well-received by those who care about these types of movies) of the reason Disney won't do a "Hulk" movie is that Universal would get a big piece of the pie and have some amount of actual control over the film as well.

While Universal would perhaps give up creative control to simply rake in some MCU money, it makes sense that Disney would forego enriching any other studio/company if they can avoid it. This is why they arbitrarily canceled the "Fantastic Four" comic, allegedly/supposedly solely to *not* help advertise the 20th Century Fox film. I've heard stories that Disney wanted to do the same with the "X-Men" comics, but whoever crunches the numbers at the comics division of Marvel informed them of how popular the comic line still is.

Disney has a pattern of being pretty sketchy in this regard, and while I mixed feelings about "Legion", I'm glad when someone other than Disney plays a role in these projects, as it's good to get someone else in on it creatively.

 

Hawley may not want the show connected to anything else. All I was getting at is that, if Fox is producing the show, and using an X-Men-related character, they're most likely only able to do so because of their long-ago license of the X-Men universe/characters.

"Legion" is a Marvel character, and Marvel/Disney is no longer licensing *any* characters or franchises out to other studios as far as I know. So I presume "Legion" is a Fox work because of their X-Men license, regardless of whether anything is connected to anything else.

 

It's a weird kind of 'licensing', too.
They couldn't use the word 'mutant' in that "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" movie, if I remember correctly!

 

Yes, and there are two Quicksilvers and Scarlet Witches! One set in the Avengers who it seems now got their powers from one of the infinity stones, and the other in X-Men who are (for now it seems) Magneto's offspring? Although Quicksilver's sister in the X-Men may not be mutant as I don't think she's the same age (we only saw a glimpse).

I don't know if they came to some agreement that Avengers could have Scarlett Witch and X-Men Quicksilver, as the Quicksilver in Avengers died pretty quickly and the Scarlett Witch in X-Men may or may not exist then.

 

Heck, the 'legal wranglings' to make these 'things' would make an interesting movie on it's own!

 

This is quite interesting The Deal Marvel Struck With Fox That Helped Deadpool And Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 - CINEMABLEND

Essentially Fox were allowed to use the name Negasonic Teenage Warhead but change her abilities in exchange for giving Marvel back the rights to Ego The Living Planet, who although appearing in many Marvel comics, was considered part of the Fantastic Four and so the rights were currently under Fox.

And of course you have the whole Sony and Marvel deal with Spider-Man.

The last Fantastic Four film was so poorly received that fans are hoping Marvel can do some deal to get it back from Fox and incorporate them into the Marvel Universe.