Mar 25, 2015

Tradecraft: Legends Undergoes Changes in Season 2

Deadline reports that TNT's Legends will undergo some significant changes in its second season. Ken Biller (Legend of the Seeker) will take over from David Wilcox as the new showrunner on the Sean Bean spy series executive produced by Howard Gordon (24, Homeland). According to the trade, "Biller is taking the reins of Legends as part of a creative revamp." Biller himself says "reimagining" and Fox 21 TV Studios president Bert Salke says "reshape," so it's pretty clear that something transformative is planned. When the series was renewed (rather late in the game, in December), it was reported that there could be some supporting cast changes. Since then it's been announced that Morris Chestnut, who was a regular on the first season, would only appear in several episodes of Season 2 as a guest star, and another Season 1 regular, Amber Valetta, has booked a new pilot. I really liked Season 1 (though it did take a few episodes to come into its own), so I hope they don't change things up too much (please find a way to keep Tina Majorino!), but the first season ended with a cliffhanger that gives them the ability to shake things up pretty thoroughly in an organic fashion and reshuffle the supporting cast dramatically. I have faith in Biller, because I loved Legend of the Seeker, and I think it would be pretty cool if he brought in some of the actors from that series... particularly Bridget Regan (Agent Carter).

Legends went through a very rough road to production before its first season, too, switching networks and stars in the process. It will be interesting to see what new direction this series, based on the novel by Robert Littell, takes. When Legends returns in August, it won't be TNT's only spy series. The cable network also has a 10-episode season of Agent X in the pipeline.

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