In late February, the CW network announced that it was developing another superhero series starring characters spun off from their successful Arrow and The Flash TV shows. The new series would feature the Ray Palmer/Atom character played by Brandon Routh, with Victor Garber (playing Martin Stein/Firestorm), Wentworth Miller (Leonard Snart/Captain Cold) and Arrow’s Caity Lotz (who may or may not be playing her previous role as Sara Lance/Canary) also in the cast.
Yes, we’re creating a spinoff from #Arrow and #TheFlash and couldn’t be more excited by the cast signing on. More to come. #SuperheroTeamUp
— Greg Berlanti (@GBerlanti) February 27, 2015
Later, Ciara Renee was added to the ensemble as Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl, along with Arthur Darvill as Rip Hunter. So this looked to be a show stacked full of characters, none of which seemed to be connected story-wise (other than Palmer, Stein and Snart all appearing on The Flash at various points).
But according to an announcement by CW, the Hunter character — a time-traveler — will be the key to tying all of these heroes and villains together, assembling the group “to confront an unstoppable threat—one in which not only is the planet at stake, but all of time itself.”
(The comic book geek writing this post guesses that immortal Vandal Savage will be the villain. That is total speculation, however. Time travel could also answer how Lance’s character, who —SPOILER ALERT —was killed in the season three premiere of Arrow, is part of the show. It also gives producers Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti a handy-dandy tool to delete any storylines they’d like to change.)
https://youtu.be/rxsVtMWE_Zw
The more important news from CW’s announcement was that this new superhero series now has a title: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. That’s probably as appropriate and explanatory a title as needed, complete with brand name. It sort of recalls The Wonderful World of Disney to me. But this show is essentially “The Wonderful World of DC Comics” or “DC Comics Characters That Aren’t Quite Cool Enough to Get a Movie But Could Be Pretty Cool on TV and Obscure Enough to Get Geeks Excited.” OK, that would be a mouthful.
But perhaps the most pertinent aspect of CW’s press release is that the network has given the show a full series order, though there was no word on how many episodes DC’s Legends of Tomorrow will get in its first season. But each season of Arrow and The Flash contains 23 episodes.
If you’re keeping count, this will make at least seven TV shows based on comic book superheroes, with several more to come. Berlanti has four of them by himself, with Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and the upcoming Supergirl (which has also been ordered to series by CBS). Gotham just completed its first season on Fox. ABC has Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter (technically not a superhero show, I suppose) with a reported spinoff in addition to a show being developed by Academy Award winner John Ridley. Then there’s Daredevil on Netflix, with four more shows being developed by Marvel.
This stuff seems kind of popular, doesn’t it?
