X-Men Movie Director Discusses a Connection Between the Movies and New Shows

The upcoming FX show Legion is based on characters from Marvel's X-Men comics, but it has not been clear whether the show will be part of Fox's X-Men movie universe. Now X-Men: Apocalypse director Bryan Singer has weighed in on the topic.

Singer, who is an executive producer on Legion, was asked about it during a Q&A at the Edinburgh Television Festival. "[It's] part of the X-Men universe," he said, via The Hollywood Reporter. "But when you watch it, you wouldn't have to label it. It could exist completely on its own."

Singer went on to explain that it "will relate to future X-Men movies," adding that it will feature a "really ambitious and fun and very unique storyline."

Legion is the result of a partnership between Marvel and Fox, and will premiere on FX in early 2017. It is being overseen by Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley and stars Dan Stevens and Aubrey Plaza. Stevens will play David Haller, the troubled son of X-Men leader Professor X, who comes to realise that the voices in his head might in fact be real.

Fox are also working on a second X-Men show. It was announced last year that a period show called Hellfire was in development; however it has since been scrapped following the departure of its showrunners in January. The new show will instead follows two ordinary parents as they discover their children are mutants and are forced to run from the government. It has received a pilot order from the network.

The character of Legion first appeared in a 1985 issue of The New Mutants. The show will be the first time that Marvel has been directly involved with the X-Men onscreen--while Fox are the sole producers of the X-Men films and spinoffs such as Wolverine and Deadpool, Marvel has retained the TV rights to the properties.