Here's How 'Legion' Could Feasibly Fit in the MCU
Short answer: He doesn't. But what if he could?
Bryan Singer’s X-Men kicked off an arms race to create the biggest superhero movie franchise. Despite Fox’s head start Marvel and Disney reign supreme even without ownership of the most popular mutant characters. 20th Century Fox still holds the rights to the likes of Wolverine, Deadpool, and the other X-Men, and it’s clear Fox has begun expanding its universe with the new TV series Legion. But in the comics, everything really is connected. So, how could Legion possibly fit into the disparate Marvel Cinematic Universe if the companies were to combine?
The current endgame for Marvel is Avengers: Infinity War, in which Thanos will take control of the Infinity Gauntlet and wield the greatest power source in the entire galaxy. Time will stop, the dead will rise, and reality will bend, which is an easy way to introduce the X-Men if Fox and Marvel/Disney decide to play nice and blow fans’ minds. Disney already worked with Sony in Captain America: Civil War last year in order for Spider-Man to finally appear in the MCU.
But even without the Reality Gem, Legion could still have a place. The mentally ill son of Charles Xavier demonstrates unmatched telepathy and telekinesis, with the conceit of Legion being that his powers distort reality to fit lead character David’s (Dan Stevens) fractured view. He’s also capable of absorbing minds and has been able to time travel; it was his actions doing all of this practically all at once that led to the armageddon known as Age of Apocalypse, which left Earth vulnerable to Apocalypse’s takeover.
The opportunity for Legion create Apocalypse on the big screen passed by last year — X-Men: Apocalypse, which was kind of a dud — but what if Legion were to recreate this scenario and wind up in the MCU? Legion is literally able to rewrite himself into the MCU’s world, where mutants don’t exist but vigilantes like the Avengers are around. This scenario doesn’t necessarily have to kick off Infinity War, but it could start building a stronger bridge to where the mutants finally belong: with everyone else.
Legion premieres on FX February 8.
