Legends of Tomorrow

Premise

When Vandal Savage murders his family, Time Master Rip Hunter goes rogue. Intending to stop him, he recruits a team consisting of Ray Palmer / The Atom, Sara Lance / White Canary, Martin Stein and Jefferson "Jax" Jackson, who together become the hero Firestorm, Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl, Carter Hall / Hawkman, Leonard Snart / Captain Cold, and Mick Rory / Heat Wave. They discover that the Time Masters are backing Savage in his domination of the world in 2166 to facilitate a successful repulsion of a Thanagarian invasion. Due to Snart's sacrifice, the Time Masters are destroyed. Savage attempts to rewrite history with a temporal explosion, but is killed by the team when he is rendered mortal by the same meteor he used for his scheme. With Savage dead, Kendra and Carter leave the team.

Following the demise of the Time Masters, Rip decides to take their place guarding history with Ray, Sara, Stein, Jax and Mick. However, they are warned by Rex Tyler / Hourman that they will die in 1942 New York City. They ignore the warning, landing Mick in stasis and themselves scattered through time. Historian Nate Heywood, aided by Oliver Queen, finds Mick and rescues all but Rip, who remained lost for a short period of time, until found and rescued by his teammates. During their mission to protect the timeline, the team meets the Justice Society of America, led by Hourman. When Tyler is murdered by Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash, Amaya Jiwe / Vixen joins the Legends to find Tyler's killer. However, Reverse-Flash is gaining allies throughout time, including Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn and Leonard Snart himself; their ultimate goal is finding the Spear of Destiny to rewrite their fates.

Cast and characters

Season 1 (2016)

The series premiere was prefaced with a special airing on January 19, 2016, titled "DC's Legends Of Tomorrow: Their Time Is Now". It featured the origin stories of the heroes and villains of the season, as well as show clips and interviews.

Development

In January 2015, co-creator Greg Berlanti stated that there were "very early" preliminary talks for an additional spin-off series centered on Ray Palmer / Atom (Brandon Routh), from Arrow and The Flash. In February 2015, it was reported that a spin-off series, described as a superhero team-up show, was in discussion by The CW for a possible 2015–16 midseason release. Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim and Sarah Schechter would serve as executive producers. The potential series would be headlined by several recurring characters from both Arrow and The Flash, including Palmer, Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller) and Dr. Martin Stein (Victor Garber). Caity Lotz was also mentioned to be among the main cast. There would be potential for other Arrow/Flash characters to cross over to the new series, and the series would be casting "three major DC Comics characters who have never appeared in a TV series".

In March 2015, Stephen Amell, who portrays Oliver Queen / Green Arrow on Arrow, confirmed the series would air in the 2015–16 midseason. Additionally, Kreisberg stated more would be revealed about the nature of the series by the end of Arrow's third season, specifically why Lotz is slated to appear, given her previous character, Sara, was killed at the start of Arrow season three. Berlanti also stated there was a particular reason for the other half of Firestorm—Ronnie Raymond (Robbie Amell), as seen on The Flash—not being mentioned in the initial cast announcement. On the purpose of the series, Berlanti said it was designed to be "most similar to our crossover episodes, where you feel that 'event-iness', but all the time. For us, first and foremost, with all of [our shows], it's about 'how is it its own thing?' Because we don't just want to do it to do it." He also revealed the producers were focusing on "making sure that the villain that we have on [the] show is distinct too... another big character who hasn't been used yet." Also in March, Dominic Purcell was revealed to be reprising his role as Heat Wave in the series, and Blake Neely, composer of Arrow and The Flash, would serve as composer. At the end of the month, Arthur Darvill was cast as Rip Hunter, one of the "new to TV" DC characters, while Ciara Renée was cast as Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl. In April 2015, in a Variety article on the recent MipTV event, it noted the title for the series would be Legends of Tomorrow, despite it still being unconfirmed by those involved with the series. Also in the month, Franz Drameh was cast as Jax Jackson.

In May 2015, actor Victor Garber said that The CW was impressed with what was shown to them, giving the project a straight-to-series order. The network officially confirmed the order for the series on May 7, 2015, as well as the official title, DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Later in the month, it was confirmed that Lotz would reprise her role as Sara Lance, who would be taking the name White Canary, as well as revealing the antagonist as Vandal Savage. In June 2015, it was announced that Phil Klemmer had been made the series showrunner as well as executive producer. At the end of the month, Grant Gustin stated he would appear in the series as Barry Allen / Flash, though he ultimately did not appear in the first season. In August 2015, Casper Crump was cast as Vandal Savage.

On March 11, 2016, the series was renewed for a second season, which debuted in October 2016. The producers have considered adjusting the Legends team for additional seasons, with Joseph David-Jones' Connor Hawke and Megalyn Echikunwoke's Vixen potential additions. For the second season, Klemmer revealed that Arrow writer Keto Shimizu and The Flash writer Grainne Godfree would be working on Legends in order to "make our stories work in concert" with Arrow and The Flash. Klemmer also noted the challenges of creating more crossover elements, since Amell and Gustin work full days for their respective shows. In terms of working within the Arrowverse, Klemmer said that the death of Laurel Lance on Arrow would "resonate into Season 2... [since] something that happens on Arrow can create ripples that appear on our show in a huge way. It fundamentally alters the DNA of our series." The second season initially consisted of 13 episodes, with four more ordered in November 2016 to bring the season total to 17.

Teasing the premise of season two in April 2016, Klemmer stated, "We're coming at it from a completely different angle. We're determined to make every part of season two feel like its own show. [The first episode of season two] will very much be a new pilot with new good guys, new bad guys, new stakes, new dynamics, new goals. The team will basically have to find a new purpose. Once you save the world, what do you do then?... The fact that the world was in peril sort of forced our team to fall into its own dysfunctional version of lockstep. Season two, they're no longer going to be hunted by Time Masters. They're no longer going to be burdened with having to save the world. It's no longer going to be about saving Miranda and Jonas. The interesting thing about season two is I think it's going to have a much, much different tone because our Legends are going to have a totally different purpose. They're actually going to have a totally different constitution. There will be new faces and new everything." The season will also introduce members of the Justice Society of America. The Society will consist of Hourman, Vixen, Commander Steel, Obsidian, Stargirl and Dr. Mid-Nite. The season will also feature a version of the Legion of Doom, composed of the Reverse-Flash, Malcolm Merlyn, Damien Darhk and Captain Cold.

Filming

In May 2015, Garber revealed filming would begin in August 2015, for a January 2016 premiere. The series shot a presentation for the network's upfront showcase, which was filmed over the course of one night, and directed by Arrow and The Flash veteran Dermott Downs. Filming of the series began on September 9, 2015, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Director/producer Glen Winter discussed in a January 2016 interview with Comic Book Resources the process of filming key elements of the series' Pilot,

The new facet for Legends was that there's no #1 [actor] on the call sheet. There are seven or eight leads. For me, that was the intimidating part. I wasn't as worried about the action and tone as I was with wrangling all these personalities and finding out how they all work together. Or, how to shoot a scene with eight people in the Waverider, day after day.

He stated of the series style of shooting on location as opposed to predominantly shooting on a soundstage,

As is typical with any pilot, most of the time you are going to shoot more on location. Because you don't necessarily know if you are going to have a show that's been picked up, they don't want to invest a lot of money in the infrastructure, so you end up shooting more on location. The only set that was built was the Waverider. That being said, because we knew there was a pickup for the show, it wasn't a conventional pilot. All the resources of construction went into the Waverider. That's continuing into the series. I don't think they tend to build much. I think they tend to adapt locations because there's so much time travel and so many eras to create.

Broadcast

Legends of Tomorrow premiered in the United States on January 21, 2016, and the first season consisted of sixteen episodes. The series premiere in Australia was originally announced as January 20, 2016, however it was pushed back until January 22. It started airing in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2016.

Critical reception

The pilot was well-reviewed for its potential. Russ Burlingame from ComicBook.com praised it saying, "The series delivers a sharp, enjoyable pilot that's arguably the most attention-grabbing and entertaining from any of the current crop of superhero shows." Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave the first part of the pilot episode a 7.7/10, praising the show's "epic scope", "fun character dynamics", and Arthur Darvill's performance; and gave the second part of the pilot a 8.4/10, saying it "improved in its sophomore episode thanks to great character dynamics and superhero action".

However, review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the complete first season an only 58% approval rating, with an average rating of 6/10 based on 36 reviews. The website's consensus reads: "Fancy effects, comic-book nostalgia, and an alluring cast help keep it afloat, but DC's Legends of Tomorrow suffers from an overloaded cast of characters that contribute to a distractingly crowded canvas." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 58 out of 100 based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Rotten Tomatoes gave the second season a 75% approval rating, with an average rating of 6.1/10 based on 12 reviews. The website's consensus reads: "Though the narrative remains too ambitious, DC's Legends of Tomorrow enjoys a freer creative arc with the removal of problem characters."

Arrowverse

In May 2015, Renée made a cameo in the final episode of The Flash's first season, "Fast Enough", and later made appearances in the show's second season in November 2015. In July 2015, Guggenheim revealed that the resurrection of Sara Lance would be launched in the first few episodes of Arrow's fourth season, with the events of the eighth episodes of Arrow and The Flash—which were a crossover event—being used to set up the other characters of Legends of Tomorrow. Franz Drameh was introduced as the new other half of Firestorm in the fourth episode of the second season of The Flash. Crump, Hentschel and James debut in the crossover episodes for the second season of The Flash and the fourth season of Arrow. In November 2016, the cast of Legends of Tomorrow appeared on The Flash and Arrow as part of the three-part "Invasion!" crossover event; the crossover episodes also featured appearances by Melissa Benoist, reprising her role as Kara Danvers / Supergirl from the TV series Supergirl.