Why 'Legion' Season 3 Will End The Series [TCA 2019]

At FX's Television Critics Association session, CEO John Landgraf revealed that the third season of Legion would be its last. Later, Legion had a season three panel in which creator Noah Hawley, producer Jeph Loeb and cast members explained why it was the right time to end, and how David Haller (Dan Stevens) would go out with a bang.

Hawley is preparing a fourth season of Fargo, but each season of Fargo is a brand new complete story with a definitive end. Legion is his first show that continued a story over two seasons, let alone three."I think endings are what give stories meaning," Hawley said. "I said last year I've never done a second season of anything. I always thought about this as a complete story with a beginning, middle and end. It felt like three acts of a story so this just felt like the natural place to end it."The ending Hawley was working towards was always in sight, although his producers didn't know quite how soon it would come."Noah told us the end of the story along with the beginning of the story," Loeb said. "It was always this magical mystery tour we were going to go on. When he came in and said we're ready to get there, it just made sense as to what it is."Stevens was always privy to the ending too."Yes, as Noah said, great stories have endings," Stevens said. "When Noah first discussed the story with me, I knew where it was going. I didn't know how but I was promised it would be weird and beautiful. I really like the way this twisted rainbow is emerging."

Part of David's ultimate plan involves time travel. Lauren Tsai joins the show as Switch, whose power of time travel appeals to David. In a clip we were shown, David invites Switch into his mindspace, which alternates between a surreal hippie commune and a standard bedroom with a rocking chair. He says he's thought about going back in time to try to get Syd (Rachel Keller) back, but the clip ends before we learn more of his plan."When we saw David last, he had left Division 3 feeling like all these people who were supposed to love him unconditionally turned on him," Hawley said. "He wanted to go someplace where he could have that love. He started himself a little old commune where he can relieve people's pain. People would come to him looking, because life is complicated. Lauren['s character] finds her way into this group as someone who does not feel connected at home or loved. She has this ability to travel in time. So she finds her way to David. That's the start of the season as we realize that he has a plan that he needs a time traveler for. That's our jumping off point."

Although clips in the trailer we saw show Lenny having her own sort of Mad Hatter tea party, Aubrey Plaza suggests that Lenny may prove heroic by the end of Legion."This season's a whole new side of Lenny," Plaza said. "I would not consider myself a villain anymore. Maybe I never was. I think this season has been really a kind of deep dive into the real human side of Lenny which I think is kind of touched on in the second season but in this season, she's gotten a second chance at real life now and you find her in a spot in the beginning where she's really happy. She's kind of living her best life as they say."Nothing is ever what it seems on Legion. In the first season, Lenny turned out to be David's old friend Benny. Even after her death, Farouk used her body as a vessel to get to David. So anything's possible for Lenny's redemption.

As much as Hawley wants to end Legion, Loeb is thinking more in terms of Marvel longevity. Plus, many franchises with a "final chapter" have made more sequels after the supposed final entry, so endings tend to inspire new beginnings more than closure."These characters, some of which are part of the Marvel library and some which are wholly created by Noah and the writers, they will live on," Loeb said. "I think of it as this is the end of this particular graphic novel. If Noah came back to us in a day or a year and all this incredible cast was still available, we would, and hopefully FX would go okay, let's tell the next story."Season three of Legion will premiere on FX this Spring.