'Legion' is on a 'separate' world as the rest of the 'X-Men' franchise, EP reveals

When new FX TV show "Legion" marches out next month, the superhero-based series will try to stand on its own two feet without any associations with big established brands like Marvel and even the "X-Men" franchise.

The psychological thriller, which was officially ordered October of 2015, may have been singing similar tunes to its supposed aforementioned tags. After all, the show is based on a Marvel property and a lot of folks who honed the story were pioneers of the "X-Men" film series including Simon Kinberg. Despite all that, the world that Legion will be walking on is different from the grounds that the likes of Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart/James McAvoy) and even Magneto (Sir Ian McKellen/Michael Fassbender) walked on their films as clarified by Marvel and X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner.

"No, we're making it separate. We're our own world," says the EP when IGN caught up with her during the recently held Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, California. "With Legion, we're our own universe. It gives Noah the freedom to do what he wants to do. Because we play with so many different timelines, and we rebooted and not really rebooted and all that, we felt like, OK, we're going to throw it out there and hope the fans accept it."

Instead of hammering audience with tie-ins and easter eggs, "Legion" follows the story of David Haller (Dan Stevens) who have been diagnosed schizophrenic at a very young age. However, what appears to be the usual case of mental instability may actually be something more. He then starts to delve into this possibility after a strange encounter with a fellow patient in a psychiatric hospital.

"Probably the driving mystery is, yes, who is David? But not in that sense. It's more, "Is David schizophrenic? Is he crazy? Or does he have powers?" That is the mystery. "Who is David?" We just don't want to get into the Xavier world, because that's not what this show is about," Shuler Donner added.

New as it may be especially for the "X-Men" shared universe, it may actually be a good way to branch into other properties without necessarily having to be tied down to existing worlds. That way, new content like "Legion" will be able to progress on its own and develop new characters that could potentially churn out something else.

"Legion" premieres on Feb. 8 with eight episodes already locked in for its first season.