You’d be forgiven for thinking that a show that is as surreal as Legion might be completely detached from reality, but star Dan Stevens feels differently.
Stevens was a guest on Larry King Now and he tells King that he believes the popularity of this show has something to do with how often people are questioning their own reality.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“It wasn’t deliberate on any part, but I’m sure it had something to do with people’s appetite for a show like this that people are questioning the nature of reality very much at the moment and the theme of paranoia and somebody who’s been diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic,” Stevens tells King in the video above. “The idea of paranoia has always fascinated me anyway. I think increasingly we live in a very, very paranoid society and you know since the ’70s really.
Stevens also sees in real headlines the kind of stories previous generations may have mistaken as the plot of a comic book.
“It’s odd to me that phrases that you might think of as being part of the comic book universe are now entering our headlines,” he says “So the idea of a company mining date to exploit your ‘inner demons,’ I saw that in a headline the other day and it blew my mind and I was like, ‘What are they talking about?’ That is straight out of Legion.”
That paranoia is manifested in the Shadow King, the powerful psychic who serves as this season of Legion‘s antagonist. ComicBook.com spoke to Navid Negahban about stepping into that sinister role.
“I think the journey and the life of the character have been very fascinating,” Negahban said. “He has been around since the beginning of creation or something. This is my understanding of the character. And, the lives he’s lived, the journeys that he’s had. And to just capture the whole thing and embody the journey, that was a challenge of its own.
“And, I don’t know. You’re asking me to judge my work, and I don’t know how to do that. I think it’s for you guys to decide what I did. And especially, I’m sure that world, the comic world, they have their own understanding. I just hope that I was able to do justice to this character because the character that’s been created, Shadow King, is not just the comic character in the comic role, he’s a real character.
Legion airs Tuesdays at 10 pm ET on FX.
