Superhero crossover sets up ‘Legends’ spinoff
CW’s superheroes of today are giving rise to the next crop of Legends.
This week The Flash (8 p.m. ET/PT Tuesday) and Arrow (8 ET/PT Wednesday) share casts for their second annual two-part crossover, but it’s actually a three-way dance this time that introduces key members of the new spinoff DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, premiering Jan. 21.
In the show, time traveler Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) rounds up a group made up of Arrow and Flash favorites, from good guys Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) and Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) to rogues Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) and Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell), to visit various times in history to stop immortal villain Vandal Savage (Casper Crump).
Before that, however, Vandal makes a big move in the crossover, attacking Central City barista Kendra Saunders (Ciara Renée) and Cisco (Carlos Valdes), a member of the S.T.A.R. Labs crew with the super-fast Flash, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin). To keep Kendra safe, Barry and his team take her to see their Team Arrow friends in Star City — including Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), aka Green Arrow — and she’s taken away by the mysterious winged Hawkman named Carter Hall (Falk Hentschel).
He drops a big bomb on Kendra, telling her that they are soulmates who’ve been reincarnated repeatedly for 4,000 years.
“She’s always been someone who’s felt something wasn’t quite right in her life,” says Flash and Legends executive producer Andrew Kreisberg. “She’s starting to suspect that maybe this disconnect is because she does have this great destiny.”
Flash fans saw a glimpse — through Cisco’s “vibe” powers — of Kendra in the Hawkgirl suit she’ll wear on Legends. But she’s not there yet, and it’s up to Carter to get her up to speed.
“She is a pretty lost human,” Renee says. “She didn’t really have a plan about what she was doing, and now she’s been thrown into this.” Yet getting involved with Carter and her new hero friends “ignites a fire in Kendra.”
It creates a love triangle of sorts since Kendra is starting to like Cisco romantically, she dislikes Carter and thinks he’s an oaf, and Carter is set in getting her up to speed since “he remembers being in love with her 206 times already,” Kreisberg says.
“Kendra doesn’t obviously reciprocate those feelings, and he’s trying to be patient just as he has through many lifetimes. But now that Vandal is here and threatening to kill them, the clock is ticking.”
Savage has killed Kendra and Carter repeatedly through their many lives to maintain his immortality, and even though his dark aristocratic look doesn’t quite scream modern fashion, Vandal adapts to whatever period he’s in, even calling Cisco “dude.”
“Sometimes you see villains portrayed where they want a nuclear bomb or money or power,” Crump says. “Vandal wants that but it’s just to teach humanity a lesson. If there are periods in time he just doesn’t find interesting, he just kicks back and relaxes ... for 30 years.
“He doesn’t need gadgets and cool suits and spaceships. All he needs is a coat, some knives and time. That’s the coolest badass you can get, in my opinion.”
Vandal’s an ancient guy but “he’s not trying to attack our heroes from his rocking chair,” adds Marc Guggenheim, executive producer of Arrow and Legends. “He has 4,000 years of experience dealing with all the great evils. He’s learned from really the best and quite frankly the worst history has to offer.”