Yesterday at the Hall-H panel for FX’s X-Men themed series Legion, it was announced that Saïd Taghmaoui, who recently starred in this summer’s blockbuster Wonder Woman, has been cast as the villainous Shadow King for the second season.
Shadow King was hinted at in the first season through various characters. FX describes him as a “villain with a thousand faces. In his real form, he is always nattily dressed. Dapper with a thin Clark Gable style mustache. His eyes forever hidden behind a pair of ornate sunglasses. He was hip long before there was such an idea. He can seductively hold court on any topic and in any language, but his true passion lies in the singular timeless notion of power and amassing as much of it as possible…It is rumored he is the spawn of the first nightmare, which is fitting because fear is his weapon of choice in exposing weakness in others. To Farouk, fear equals weakness and he fears nothing. Which is why he takes such delight in seeing others squirm — a reminder he is more powerful than them.”
Meanwhile, ET caught up with the cast of Legion at Comic-Con and Dan Stevens, who plays David Haller on the show, revealed that he has spoken with Patrick Stewart about coming onto the show. Much to his, and many fans delight, Stewart has expressed interest in reprising the role of Professor X for the show.
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“Oh god, Patrick Stewart takes a lot of beating and he did seem interested,” Stevens said. “He seemed very unaware of the show, but I mentioned that he was my dad, and he seemed pleasantly surprised.”
In the comics, David is actually Charles Xavier’s son, and while Legion’s first season didn’t outright say it, season 2 will address that fact according to showrunner Noah Hawley: “I think we want to address that. It’s normal when you learn you’re adopted to want to know who your real family is. He doesn’t yet know the identity, so I think it will be a process to get there.”
“There’s quite a lot of explaining there, that your dad is Professor X,” commented Stevens.
“Because you’re like, ‘What does the X stand for? But yeah, we’re on that path,” added Hawley.
Despite Stewart’s previous assertion that Logan would be his last performance as the mutant leader, perhaps we’ll see him returning to address David’s family in an upcoming episode of Legion.
Legion will return to FX for season 2 in February 2018 for a 10 episode season.
Originally published July 21, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
