Marvel’s Jeph Loeb Says Netflix Superhero Shows and ‘Legion’ Aren’t Over Yet

FX’s Legion wasn’t canceled after its third season; it’s ending on its own terms. That’s the distinction Executive Vice President of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb wanted to reiterate at the Television Critics Association’s 2019 winter tour.

“I’d like to sort of shave that story a little bit,” Loeb said during a one-on-one interview with Decider. “When Noah [Hawley] came in the first day and told us what he wanted to do he told us the end of the story. It wasn’t like ‘I haven’t really figured out where this is gonna go, but this is what I wanna do.’ I’ve very often referred to being on the show as being on the Magical Mystery Tour and that Noah was our bus driver and that eventually he was going to say ‘Okay, time to get off.'”

When it comes to developing a new show for Marvel, the thing the studio looks for in creators is passion. “I’m assuming that if you’ve got close enough for us to have a conversation that you have a talent, that’s sort of a given. So it really comes down to passion,” Loeb said.

For Legion showrunner Noah Hawley, that passion was all about the character of Legion. Though Loeb acknowledged that no X-Men fan had ever asked for a Legion series before Hawley came in, the company trusted the creator to follow his muse. It helps that, according to Loeb, Marvel never approaches a story with the intent of making a superhero show. “Legion is a perfect example. Legion is a story about a damaged man who is looking to be loved. That’s the story. The fact that he can change reality with his mind is the Marvel of it, but if you don’t buy into that first part then the rest of it is just noise,” Loeb explained.

But just because Hawley’s vision is ending, that doesn’t mean this story is over. The Marvel head immediately put the announced conclusion into comic book terms. Though Season 3 will see the conclusion of Legion, this is only the end of this particular story. “When you think about Marvel heroes and villains in general, it says ‘The End’ and then at the bottom it says ‘To be continued….'” Loeb explained. “I don’t feel like there’s a world where the story ends.”

That mentality translates to how Loeb views the future of Netflix’s many canceled Marvel properties. To date Netflix has launched six Marvel shows — Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and the one-season crossover miniseries The Defenders. So far, Netflix has canceled three of them: Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and its most-watched Marvel property, Daredevil.

“I would not be surprised if any of those things reemerged. It depends on showrunner, it depends on availability of cast, all of those things. It’s not like we’re a doctor show where the show got canceled because of bad ratings,” Loeb said. “These are shows that have very different reasons [for ending], most of which I’m not at liberty to talk about, nor should anyone really care at the end of day.”

Loeb also explained how Legion‘s ending was different from Netflix’s many Marvel cancellations. “In the Netflix situations, that was a situation where the network made a decision and we had nothing to say about it.

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“In [Legion‘s] case, Noah came to us and said ‘This is where I want to end this particular story’ and we said “Great, that’s perfectly fine. Please know that you’re welcome back and that the toys are still in the box, please come back and play with the toys,'” Loeb said. “It would not surprise me if there’s something else that we do. The same thing goes at FX. If [FX CEO] John Landgraf tomorrow said ‘What do you think about …?’ I would go ‘That sounds like the greatest thing ever, let’s go do it.’ So it’s a very different situation.”

At the moment, Loeb is focusing on the current Marvel shows that are airing new episodes across various networks. He highlighted Season 2 of Freeform’s Cloak and Dagger, Season 7 of ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Hulu’s Runaways, which he said is currently waiting for a Season 3 pickup. “In terms of the future, there are quite a few things that we can’t talk about yet and when we start to, I think people will start to go ‘Oh, the restaurant wasn’t closing. You just have a new menu because you have a fabulous new chef. Got it, I’ll be there Thursday,'” Loeb said.

[Of note, Marvel’s slate of animated shows on Hulu were announced after we had the chance to talk to Loeb, which may be part of what he was referring to.]

“There is stuff going on all the time. I think it’s also realistic to think when you have 11, 12, 14 shows that some of them are going to rest,” Loeb added.

The third and final season of Legion premieres on FX in June of 2019.

Where to stream Legion