More Marvel TV shows on the way with FX’s ‘Legion’ and Fox’s ‘Hellfire’

Looks like an expanded “X-Men”-related universe is heading to TV. At least sort of.

Fox and FX announced new Marvel projects today, bringing a world of mutants to the small screen. Except they didn’t actually use the word “mutants.”

FX has ordered the pilot for “Legion,” the story of David Haller, described in its announcement as a “troubled young man who may be more than human.”

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The premise of “Legion” is that Haller, who has struggled with mental illness since he was a teen, has been in and out of psychiatric hospital for years due to his diagnosis as a schizophrenic. A strange encounter with a fellow patient leaves him confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and the vision he sees might be real.

In the comics, David Haller is David Charles Haller -- Charles as in Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men. Haller is the mutant son of Xavier and Israeli Holocaust survivor Gabrielle Haller, who suffers from a form of multiple personality disorder. Each of his personas controls one of his many mutant psionic superpowers, and collectively they are the mutant called Legion.

“Fargo” showrunner Noah Hawley is set to write the pilot and serve as an executive producer.

“‘Legion’ is just the sort of ambitious story that Noah excels at,” said Nick Grad, FX’s president of original programming in a press release. “His adaption of ‘Fargo’ for television was one of the most acclaimed television events in recent memory.”

Marvel Television will co-produce the pilot with FX Productions, with Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer, Simon Kinberg, Jeph Loeb, Jim Chory and John Cameron also tapped to executive-produce.

Fox, on the other hand, is developing a series tentatively titled “Hellfire” with Marvel.

The action-adventure series will be set in the late 1960s and will follow a young special agent who learns that a power-hungry woman is working with a clandestine society of millionares known as the Hellfire Club to take over the world. Of course this power-hungry woman happens to have “extraordinary abilities.”

In the comics, the Hellfire Club is an exclusive society with a secret Inner Circle with a desire to achieve world domination that often comes into confrontation with the X-Men. And of course, Hellfire Club members Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and Emma Frost (January Jones) appeared as villains in the 2011 film “X-Men: First Class.”

“‘Hellfire’ is a unique opportunity to be able to go deeper with some of these extraordinary characters, but to also dramatize new characters and give TV viewers a chance to experience this expanded world in an explosive way that everyone will be talking about,” said Jonathan Davis, 20th Century Fox Television’s president of creative affairs.

No word yet on exactly who these characters are. (Fingers crossed the “special agent” is Moira MacTaggert.)

Patrick McKay and JD Payne are set to write the pilot for the series based on a story by McKay, Payne and Evan Katz (all three are credited as co-creators of the series along with Manny Coto). Katz and Coto will serve as showrunners and executive producers. Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer, Simon Kinberg, Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory will also serve as executive producers.

Twitter: @tracycbrown