'Legends of Tomorrow' Preview: Superhero Show or Family Show?
The stage was crowded at today’s press tour panel for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The CW’s latest spinoff in the Arrow universe. All ten members of the main cast were there, as well as five of the show’s executive producers and DC Comics CCO Geoff Johns. But, like the show itself, the panel made keeping that many balls in the air look easy.
Despite concerns that there will eventually be a saturation point for superhero shows on TV, Johns said that as long as the shows are all exploring something different and “as long as they’re all great shows,” that day will never come. Superheroes are metaphors, and in the case of Legends, what they’re exploring that separates this show from its parent shows, Arrow and The Flash, is destiny. “You can see it right there in the pilot,” Johns said. “It’s all about, ‘Is my life going to matter?'”
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One of the reasons they felt like another show was necessary, said executive producer Greg Berlanti, was the growing number of characters they were adding to the other two shows: “We never felt like we had enough real estate, enough time on a regular basis on The Flash and Arrow to delve deeper in to their lives and their stories.” So unlike, say, Doctor Who, which is very story-driven, the core of this show is the characters.
In fact, one of the things that the writers had to learn, said executive producer Phil Klemmer, was “how much story and plot the series could accommodate to make room for the interpersonal moments that we all enjoy so much.” Executive producer Marc Guggenheim agreed, saying, “Where the show lives is in the interactions of all these characters,” which is something that Arrow and The Flash do, but is not their main focus.
The team is made up of heroes and villains, which allows for all sorts of interesting new ways for comic book characters to interact on TV. Arthur Darvill, who plays the time-traveling Rip Hunter, explains the team dynamic this way: “Rip only expects this show to last for one episode. And when it starts to fall apart, it is really frustrating. He doesn’t want to spend any time with them. He hasn’t chosen them because he likes them!”
Just a few years ago, it would have been impossible to do a show this effects-heavy, and the producers heap praise on Encore Post, who handle the show’s visual effects. “Supergirl, she just has to fly,” said Guggenheim. “And Flash just has to run. Arrow, he has to shoot CG arrows. This, you’ve got a guy who shoots a heat gun, a cold gun, two people who fly, two people with sets of computer-generated wings, a guy in a suit that shrinks down and flies. Firestorm! The number of characters and different types of effects that have to be done every single episode? That alone puts it on a different level in terms of degree of difficulty.”
All of the show’s elements are designed to appeal to people who enjoy comic books. “Using ourselves as fans has always been our guiding light,” said executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, who, like Berlanti, is an EP on Legends, Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl. But it’s not just for fanboys, and it’s not just about effects, he adds. “The quiet secret to the success of these shows is how much the audience truly cares about these people, and how much they invest in them, and how much good they want for them, and how much they want them to be well, and how much they want them to be happy.”
In fact, Berlanti was taken by surprise as Legends began to grow beyond just the idea of a gaggle of superheroes: “The big discovery for me in the show is how much of a family show it really is.” And though he’s no stranger to that genre — having produced shows like Dawson’s Creek, Everwood, and many more — it was unexpected here. “Whenever this group of characters is on the bridge [of the time-traveling ship, Waverider], talking about their adventures, either prior to or after, they’re sort of this dysfunctional family, and I’m not sure I had that thought, or any of us did, as we started fleshing it out.”
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow premieres Thursday, Jan. 21 at 8 p.m. on The CW.
