Legion continues to reveal more about its Season Two storyline, which sees David Haller trying to avert a disastrous future timeline by doing the unexpected: helping the Shadow King, Amahl Farouk, find his original body. That uneasy alliance took a sharp turn this week, as the Shadow King’s dark influence began to worm its way through the minds of the Division 3 agency.
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The show has been successful in using the Shadow King and his powers as an effective metaphor for mental illness, an angle which formed the series’ initial storyline and surrealist style. In Season Two, episodes have opened with monologues form a mysterious “narrator” that frame the Shadow King in a new metaphorical light, relating his corruption of minds to human ideology, and the dangers of groupthink. If you’ve been watching, then you’ve probably noticed that the “narrator’s” voice is all-too-familiar: that’s because it’s the voice of Mad Men star, Jon Hamm.
While Hamm is currently playing out a recurring voice role on the show, some fans have begun to wonder: Is that all he’s going to be doing on Legion? Could the actor actually appear in the flesh on the show at some point in Season Two? And who would he play? All good questions that we should probably discuss.
Hamming Up the X-Men Universe
The funny thing about this Legion narrator being Jon Hamm is the fact that the actor was already slated to join the live-action X-Men Universe — only to have it go sideways.
A recent report on the big delays in the upcoming X-Men movies New Mutants and X-Men: Dark Phoenix revealed that Hamm was actually going to appear in the former. Not only that, but the now-deleted New Mutants post-credits scene would’ve featured Hamm’s debut as X-Men fan-favorite villain Mr. Sinister, who was expected to have a much larger arc in future movies! There’s been no real indication yet if Jon Hamm’s Mr. Sinister movie role is still on the table, or if the actor has moved on. If it’s the latter, then maybe X-Men TV picked up where the movies came up short?
Legion of Hamm
It seems that Jon Hamm’s role in the X-Men Universe is happening, one way or another, but it truly seems like something of a waste to have an actor of his fame relegated to doing voice over for an entire season.
At this point, anyone who has been watching Legion knows that the show is so weird and unpredictable that no one should put it past showrunner Noah Hawley to bring Hamm onscreen for a special Season Two cameo or full recurring role. The only question is: how would it be done?
While it seems unlikely that Hamm would jump into a major villain role like Mr. Sinister on TV — especially when he already had the role in the movie franchise. However, it’s not outside the realm of all possibility; Hamm would be a great Essex/Sinister, and it’s the type of villain that Hawley could spin into unique new format to better suit the world of Legion. In fact, after the Shadow King, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to find out that Sinister is involved in the dire warning that David has received, about a dark new threat approaching. Sinister as a Season Three big bad would be perfect.
But this is Legion we’re talking about. Hawley could (nay: would) just as soon have Hamm appear as a random government suit or some other kind of irreverent character, in short but sweet cameo appearance. It would make sense if we eventually pull back to find that the narrator is actually telling this story from within the show, with the voice over being the bridge to whatever new context is eventually revealed.
Finally, Hawley could also pull something totally crazy: like revealing that it’s Hamm underneath the basket on the head of Division 3’s mysterious leader, Admiral Fukyama. That would be so Legion.
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Do you think Jon Hamm will have a bigger role on Legion this season? What would it be? Let us know in the comments!
Legion airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on FX.
