FX’s X-Men themed LEGION series finds its lead actor and cast.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, three actors have been added to the cast of FX’s upcoming LEGION series. Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) will star as the main character, along with Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation), Jean Smart (Fargo) and newcomer Jeremie Harris as Ptonomy. They join previously announced Rachel Keller, who will star in the pilot from “Fargo” showrunner Noah Hawley.

The show will 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 the comics, he’s the illegitimate son of Professor Charles Xavier, but it’s unknown if that will remain the same, as the series will not be in the same continuity as the films.

“It’s not in the continuity of those films in the sense the current X-Men films take place in a universe in which everybody on planet Earth is aware of the existence of mutants,” FX President John Landgraf said last month. “The series ‘Legion’ takes place in a parallel universe, if you will, in which the US government is in the early days of being aware that something called mutants exist but the public is not. I wouldn’t foresee characters moving back and forth because they really are parallel universes.”

Plaza will play “Lenny, David’s friend who, despite a life of drugs and alcohol abuse, knows that any day now her life is going to turn around — which gives Lenny the likeable energy of the impossible optimist despite her rough demeanor.”

Smart will portray “Melanie, a nurturing, demanding therapist with a sharp mind and unconventional methods.”

Harris plays Ptonomy,

Keller takes on the role of “Syd, a self-sufficient and street smart woman who uses her sharp and prickly demeanor to protect her soft core because even though it makes her a sucker and puts her at risk, she still believes in happily ever after. ”

The show is executive produced by X-Men film producers Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg with Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory, along with Steve Blackmen and Hawley.

Production begins this March and will air later this year on FX.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter