After three seasons of being alluded to, though never named, on-screen, Professor X has finally appeared on Legion. As protagonist David Haller (Dan Stevens) is the son of the X-Men founder, fans have been wondering when Charles Xavier would make himself known on the series, and last night’s episode of the FX show’s final season belatedly introduced him.
Game of Thrones‘ Harry Lloyd played the iconic character for a flashback-filled bottled outing that explored how Charles fell in love with Gabrielle (Stephanie Corneliussen), David’s mother, and touched on his life as a soldier in World War II. Such a different take required a brand new interpretation of Xavier, but at an earlier stage, the production team considered approaching Patrick Stewart to make a comeback.
Showrunner Noah Hawley confirmed the news to The Wrap, but explained that he ultimately cast a fresh face in the role as it better fit the “alternate reality” of Legion.
“We’re going to have to meet [David’s] parents eventually. Nobody fought us on it. There was a question obviously about what age is he? What’s the model? Is he the McAvoy age? Is he Patrick Stewart age? Should we try to get either of those actors to do it? Ultimately, I felt like we established our own alternate reality here on ‘Legion,’ where it’s both 1964 and the future… I think I felt like the younger Xavier was actually more consistent with the timeline. But there’s something about David, if David meets his father and his father is his age, I think there’s something interesting about that.”
In previous years, Hawley has been open about his desire to get Professor X on the show, but there was a lot of corporate red tape preventing that from happening. As this is the last run of the trippiest comic book series on the air, though, this time the EP was given free rein to use the character how he wanted.
As those who tuned in will know, Charles appeared in episode 3 because David’s able to journey to the past, thanks to the aid of mutant time traveler Switch (Lauren Tsai). He fails to prevent the Shadow King from possessing him as a baby, however, so no doubt Professor X will show up in future episodes of Legion as David tries once again to fix his broken life.