Noah Hawley is one of the more interesting filmmakers working today. After breaking through with his incredible FX series “Fargo,” the writer-director-producer kept that streak going, but in a completely different genre — superheroes. “Legion” is based on an ‘X-Men’ character and is wrapping up its highly-acclaimed run this year. Largely, Hawley has succeeded by pushing the boundaries of the genre and medium and he feels that’s exactly the type of thing that could help Marvel Studios.
Speaking to THR, Hawley talked about the final season of ‘Legion’ as well as a recent meeting he had with none other than Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. And while he’s not sure what the future might hold, he says that the purpose of the meeting was for Hawley to pitch himself as the “Marvel R&D department.”
“I did sit down with [Marvel Studios’ president] Kevin Feige recently and I said that I look at myself as sort of the Marvel R&D department,” said Hawley. “I know the genre can do all of these amazing things that [the Marvel Cinematic Universe] is doing, but my feeling is, what else can we do with it? Can we make it surreal? Can we make it musical? Not as a gimmick, but all of these techniques are about putting you into the subjective experience of these characters.”
While Marvel Studios has found record-breaking success over the course of its 22 films, there’s no denying that most of the films fall into a pretty predictable formula. Granted, that formula is revolutionary in its own right but has become a bit tired, as of late. So, the idea of Hawley being the guy that might get Feige to explore more surreal and experimental storytelling is pretty interesting and could lead to an evolution of the superhero genre, let alone give Marvel Studios a fresh coat of paint moving forward.
Hawley has dabbled in superhero filmmaking outside of “Legion.” Before the Fox/Disney merger, he was signed to write and direct a “Doctor Doom” film. However, with the merger complete and Marvel Studios in control of Doom, as well as the other Fox properties, it’s unclear what the future might hold for Hawley’s script. That being said, he does say that he will revisit the idea after he’s done with “Legion,” the upcoming season of “Fargo,” and the release of his feature film “Lucy in the Sky.” So, maybe Marvel Studios is looking at Hawley as someone for the future?
Either way, if you want to see the type of superhero storytelling that interests Hawley, the final season of “Legion” is airing on FX now.