Below we spoke to Hawley about his new series, which premieres Feb. 8.
My goal was to find a great show in there that I wanted to make.
In a lot of ways, it was more about me than the comics.
Credit: Chris Large/FX
There are hundreds of characters and stories worth telling.
I just wanted to find one that I wanted to tell with characters from this world.
There have been so many superhero shows and movies.
Theres an inventiveness when you could use the genre elements to heighten certain themes of character crisis.
If it’s possible for you to give an audience that, its something really rare.
Obviously, I wasnt looking to do something easy.
Speaking of the tightrope, Marvel has a reputation for being very hands on.
You very much have your own vision.
It was a very positive relationship.
Obviously, this show is a dramatic departure from their other shows.
Theyre controlling a roll-out of a series of characters on Netflix that are interconnected.
So theres a game-plan there for all of those pieces.
So [Marvel TV chief] Jeph Loeb offered me guidance.
It was a helpful gauge.
This is not a world that Im used to telling stories in.
It was a surprisingly emotional experience for myself.
You have a large fan base and a lot of them feel like outsiders.
Thats very powerful for them and we have a responsibility as storytellers to give them that sense.
But 20 years have gone by and that sense of identity is hard baked.
What they thought was an illness is actually a strength.
Hes an omega mutant, hes very powerful.
Syd whos played by Rachel Keller doesnt like to be touched.
We have an actor, Jeremie Harris, who plays a character named Ptonomy.
Hes a memory artist.
And there are other characters with other powers, but those are the main ones.
Is Jean Smarts character a mutant as well?Shes not.
The minute I got Dan I stopped worrying about it.
And I knew I stacked the deck because we meet this guy whos institutionalized and having a hard time.
But then he meets this girl and he falls in love and he wants to get better.
He wants to be healthy and he wants to be with her and we want that too.
Its very positive to root for.
We all want to be happy or healthy in the long run.
I was amazed he was available, honestly, his range is incredible.
I feel like not only is a great romantic lead, hes very vulnerable and also very strong.
Which is to say this whole show is not the world, its Davidsexperienceof the world.
Hes piecing his world together from nostalgia and memory and the world becomes that.
I found myself watchingA Clockwork OrangeandQuadropheniaand a lot of 60s British films.
Yet there are elements that are futuristic too.
Costume wiseClockworkhad a specific look to it that I wanted to play with.
You wonder: Who is this guy if everything hes thought about himself is wrong?
Davids origin story hasnt changed, so we havent changed that connection to theX-Menuniverse.
Are there any tropes of the genre you specifically want to avoid?
Like, There will be no capes?No, I dont care.
There might not beflyingcapes.
There might be like a count or Visigoth with a cape …
There is a sense in a lot of these stories that everything always builds to a big fight.
That was very much on my mind while making this who.
