In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sequence from the opening of the latest episode of Legion, the FX show confirmed that the uber-powerful David Haller from Marvel Comics does indeed exist somewhere in the Legion multiverse.
But what’s he doing?
On Tuesday night, FX aired the penultimate episode of Legion Season 2, and the opening moments showed a strange scene in which a small horde of people wearing bamboo hats surged through the night towards a shack with a fire burning inside. As the camera closed in on the shack, we saw someone that looked like Lenny lying on the ground, rubbing her stomach as if pregnant. Behind her sat David Haller, but not the David we know or any of the alternate reality Davids we saw several weeks ago in “Chapter 14.”
Here is David Haller, but one from a universe we’ve never seen before on Legion:
Say hello to David Haller from Earth-616 in the Marvel Comics universe.
On the TV show, David always has messy, unkempt hair (probably because we’re supposed to think he’s all “crazy”). In just about all of his comic book appearances, David Haller has hair that stands straight up in an uncanny way. This David has the exact same hairstyle and costume as the character from X-Men Legacy Vol 2.
But in this episode’s opening scene, actor Dan Stevens has that same bizarre haircut standing straight up from the comics. At one point during that comic run, Haller even admits, “My hair resists all attempt at restyling.” Throughout X-Men Legacy Vol 2., David also wears a black and red vest that’s often left open with no shirt underneath.
So yeah, this is definitely David Haller from Marvel Comics. This cameo, which is also kind of an Easter egg, totally redefines how Legion relates back to the character’s comics counterpart.
So what’s David-616 doing on Legion?
A familiar version of David Haller had a brief cameo at the start of 'Legion' "Chapter 18."
The comics version of David Haller is watching Sydney Barrett on Legion through some kind of crystal ball (similar to the one we saw earlier this season). Consider this weird scene kind of a prologue to the episode, because the camera quickly zooms in and we got to watch the episode-proper.
Rest assured, of all the many versions of David Haller out there in the multiverse, this is the one we should all be the most afraid of. After all, he’s often described as the most powerful mutant in the Marvel Universe.
So why is the David Haller from the main Marvel Comics continuity — Earth-616 — literally watching Legion right now?
Here's an even better look at "that" version of David from Marvel Comics.
Midway through the episode, Melanie even namedrops “Legion,” calling David Haller “the world-killer.” In the continuity of the show, David supposedly goes on to kill Farouk and then destroy the world, which is why his visions of the future seem so bleak.
But if David-616 is watching these events unfold, then could he possibly appear in the Season 2 finale as some kind of deus ex machina? Surely, if anyone can defeat Amahl Farouk and subdue this universe’s David, then it’s … that David.
We’ll have to wait and see when the Season 2 finale airs on June 12 to see if that cameo was more than just an Easter egg, and even if it’s not, the episode is bound to be a wild ride.
