“I’m gonna live forever. I’m gonna learn how to fly!” DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW and Broadway star, Ciara Renée, would be able to belt out those lyrics from the musical, FAME, while getting in touch with the feelings and history of her character, Hawkgirl.
Tonight, on the premiere of DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, Time Master, Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), recruits the two immortals, Hawkgirl and Hawkman (Falk Hentschel), to be part of the team that he is assembling to fight another immortal, villain Vandal Savage (Casper Crump).
Other characters introduced on THE FLASH and ARROW, also will be recruited by Hunter to be part of his time-traveling, crime-fighting crew. For those of you who missed those introductions, here is the breakdown of the first members called to service by Hunter to be defined not as heroes, but legends…
Martin Stein (Victor Garber) and Jefferson “Jax” Jackson (Franz Drameh), an eccentric genius and a high school football player who was affected by Central City’s particle accelerator explosion. The two men converge to become one superhero…the fiery flyer, Firestorm.
Laurel Lance’s sister, Sara (Caity Lotz) aka White Canary, a trained assassin who was resurrected from death in the Lazarus Pit, and came back to life a little crazy…and with a lot of bloodlust. The best way for her to control her insanity? Kill someone.
Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller), known as Captain Cold, and his partner Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell), aka Heat Wave, a pair of career criminals, neither of whom wants to be heroes, but have a future in comedy should crime ever become boring.
Miller and Purcell, who played brothers on PRISON BREAK and are slated to reprise their roles in the upcoming “event series” for that show, have that well-oiled timing necessary to deliver lines with appropriate parts of menace and humor, kind of like THE HONEYMOONERS of the criminal world.
Perpetual optimist/Boy Scout-ish billionaire and inventor Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), creator of an exo-suit with the power to shrink him to miniscule size, will be joining in his hero identity, The Atom.
Lastly, the aforementioned eternal lovers, Kendra Saunders and Carter Hall, Hawkgirl and Hawkman, respectively, will be part of the team, while Hawkgirl continues to hone her newly-remembered powers and the pair tries to avoid Savage, who has killed them over 300 times throughout the centuries…an act that increases his villainous powers.
These diversely different personalities will join Hunter, who has come back from the future to assemble this group of someday-to-be-legends to fight crime throughout time, and possibly dimensions, via a time-jumping spaceship, the Waverider (not TARDIS, although Darvill was on DOCTOR WHO).
For history purists, worry not. There will be rules for time travel. Snart and Mick will not be saving Lincoln from assassination or stopping the moon landing.
Tonight, the crew travels back in time to the 1970s, and the members begins the sometimes painful adjustment from looking out for themselves to looking out for each other (watch a sneak peek).
At least two decades are destined for a visit in upcoming episodes…the Old West and the 1950s. Johnathon Scaech has been cast as Wild West outlaw, Jonah Hex, and Ali Liebert will be playing a nurse in the ‘50s on another episode.
Other guest stars expected to appear in upcoming episodes are Matt Nable and Neal McDonough, (ARROW’S Ra’s al Ghul and Damien Darhk), MR. ROBOT’s Stephanie Corneliusse and FIREFLY’s Jewel Staite.
Executive producers Marc Guggenheim & Phil Klemmer and Greg Berlanti & Andrew Kreisberg wrote tonight’s DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW pilot, which was directed by Glen Winter.
To quote the Chambers Brothers…”Time has come today!” DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW airs its series premiere tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.