X-Men Spinoff TV Series Confirmed for 2017, First Image Released

The first TV show connected to the X-Men movie universe is heading to screens in 2017. It has been confirmed that Legion has been picked up for a full season, and the first image of star Dan Stevens has been released. Check it out below:

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 co-stars Parks and Recreation's Aubrey Plaza. FX have released an official synopsis, which reads:

Legion introduces the story of David Haller: Since he was a teenager, David has struggled with mental illness. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, David has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. But after a strange encounter with a fellow patient, he's confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees might be real.

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Hawley spoke about the approach he was taking to Legion. "I always feel like the structure of a story should reflect the content of the story," he explained. "If the story, as in this case, is about a guy who is either schizophrenic or he has these abilities, i.e., he doesn't know what's real and what's not real, then the audience should have the same experience.

"[There will be] a surreal or dreamlike quality where it's not just about running and kicking. There's, whatever, 9,000 superhero stories right now. They've got all the running and kicking covered. I think my goal with this is to do something whimsical and imaginative and unexpected. Not just because I want to do something different, but because it feels like the right way to tell this story."

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 have retained the TV rights to the properties.

Another X-Men spinoff titled Hellfire is also in development at Fox. In January, Deadline reported that showrunners Evan Katz and Manny Coto had exited the project, and that the channel were searching for someone new to oversee the series. The show is being produced for the main Fox channel, and will be based around the Hellfire Club, the secret society of supervillains that featured in 2011's X-Men: First Class.