The CW's latest superhero series, which premieres on Thursday, has a particular advantage in that fans of Arrow and The Flash already know most of the characters. With all of this established history, will DC's Legends Of Tomorrow crossover with Arrow and The Flash ? Unfortunately, I wouldn't get my hopes up for something on the level that fans are used to.
In an interview with IGN, executive producer Marc Guggenheim explained some of the fundamental difficulties of a crossover event. "In the [Legends Of Tomorrow] pilot, our characters are sort of plucked from 2016 and put on a time ship and travel throughout time. The fact of the matter is by the nature of that, they don't have any opportunity to interact with the characters of Flash and Arrow as far as Season 2 of Flash and Season 4 of Arrow are concerned, we want to create a time travel show, and once you're doing that, you're not interacting with your other characters, which I think we were all very fine with. There's no plan to return them to their sister shows any time soon."
"We really love the ensemble that we've built," Guggenheim said in the same interview, "and a big part of the cache of the show is the dynamic between this group of people. While we always say it's fun to mix and match and constantly replenish the team, we don't want to do that without losing the magic that we currently have."
Of course, the show has already had a significant amount of crossover. As I said before, most of the characters (Sara Lance, Ray Palmer, Kendra Saunders, Carter Hall, Mick Rory, Martin Stein, Jax Jackson, and Leonard Snart) were introduced on either The Flash or Arrow, and both Barry Allen and Oliver Queen have appeared as apparent guest-stars in the trailer. So the potential for crossover is always there, even if it isn't a big week-long event like the other shows have done in the past. They will still fully exist in the same universe. Executive producer Phil Klemmer said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that “we will have a couple marked crossover moments that hopefully will keep people satisfied,” and the article also confirmed that characters like Cisco Ramon, Ra's al Ghul, and Damien Darhk would all be in the new series, as well as some fun with the network's other heroes and time travel. Yes, that means super babies, and sounds amazing.
Crossover or not, Legends Of Tomorrow looks super fun. Were I to compare this show to Marvel, I think the feel of the group is much more Guardians of the Galaxy than Avengers — especially considering that at least two of the gang consider themselves to be villains. As a bizarre team whizzing through time together, they should be able to stand on their own.
Image: Jeff Weddell/The CW
