Legion Season 2 Prepares For The End Of Everything In First Full Trailer

[Nergal]

 

The full trailer for Legion season 2 is here, and the first footage from FX’s mind-bending mutant drama suggests the show still packs quite the visual punch. The series is set to return in early April, adding to the network’s robust lineup that includes Atlanta, The Americans, and Trust all at the same time. It’s an embarrassment of television riches that offers a little bit of everything from spy dramas to true crime to the sublimely surreal — a description that fits both Atlanta and Legion — and should keep audiences entertained through spring and into early summer.

Legion season 2 has a lot riding on it. The first season wasn’t just a visual treat that was remarkably and refreshingly different from everything else on television bearing the Marvel, it also ended with a surprising cliffhanger that left David (Dan Stevens) trapped in a mysterious orb while Syd was helpless to stop his apparent abduction. Stevens and series creator Noah Hawley have already addressed that cliffhanger leads to a time jump at the start of the second season, one that not only maintains the series’ sense of mystery, but also pulls the rug out from under David, who was just beginning to get his bearings when the season came to an end.

Part of that had to do with the expulsion of the Shadow King from David’s psyche, and part of it had to do with his finding something of a home with the other mutants of Summerland. And as the season 2 trailer shows, there’s more to the story on both accounts than David could have imagined, as the hunt for the Shadow King — who was las seen absconding with Oliver Bird’s body — intensifies. It also means the mutants of Summerland have been annexed by Division 3, in way that suggests an enemy-of-my-enemy kind of partnership has been underway since David went missing.
 

The act of parsing the Legion trailer for concrete information is exponentially more difficult than the already demanding task of parsing an episode of Legion for the same. The series revels in its main character’s tenuous relationship with reality and the question of whether or not what the audience is experiencing is authentic or the manifestation of his awesome power. As such, when watching a trailer like this, it’s often best to just sit back and enjoy everything coming your way — like Jemaine Clement’s dance skills being put on display.

Buried in the trailer there is at least a hint of what sort of role the Shadow King will play, and how Navid Negahban’s performance will shape the way the character is perceived. Last season, he was a repulsive and malevolent force hiding out in David’s mind, sometimes taking the form of Aubrey Plaza’s Lenny. Now, he’s also a dapper man in sunglasses sporting a pencil-thin mustache that’ll make you want to watch The Guns of Navarone. As is so often the case with this series, despite the concern that the “end of everything” is at stake, it’s beginning to feel as though there’s so much more than meets the eye just waiting to be discovered in season 2.