DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Caity Lotz as the kickbutt White Canary
The CW network is the genre-loving broadcaster that can boasts of television shows about demon-hunting brothers (Supernatural with 11 amazing seasons), sexy young vampires (The Vampire Diaries, The Originals), and oddly appealing zombies (iZombie). They have also done well showcasing superheroes, most notably with Smallville about the early days of Clark Kent/Superboy, which ended in 2011 after a super ten year run.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, (l. to r.) Franz Drameh as Firestorm, Ciara Renee as Hawkgirl, Victor Garber as Prof. Stein, Falk Hantschel as Hawkman, and Brandon Routh as Atom.
(photos: JeffWeddell/TheCW)
Currently The CW has DC Comics’ crime-fighting costumed characters The Flash and Arrow with their own popular shows. And now our favorite new Superheroes are sharing the spotlight with them. The thrilling new series DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, spun off from the Flash/Arrow comic books, is must-see TV on Thursday nights for enthusiastic fanboys and fangirls of all demographics.
Mark Pedowitz, president of The CW, isn’t worried that there are too many genre shows on his network. At the recent Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, Pedowitz told journalists, “When you have quality shows, people will come and watch them no matter what the genre is. So I’m very comfortable about that.”
The quality of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is remarkable. There’s a lot of the blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy meets cult favorite Dr. Who, according to Pedowitz. He described the pilot as “lighter than Arrow and Flash. It has great actors and great auspices. I want popcorn with me anytime I watch it. It’s a big, fun popcorn show. It’s just and it takes your mind off of the troubles of the world.”
An action adventure show, Legends features heroes and villains from the DC Universe. Their mantra is “When heroes alone are not enough… the world needs legends,” and their adventure started with the time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) assembling a ragtag group to confront an unstoppable threat from the future. Rip is desperate to get the “legends of tomorrow” to prevent Vandal Savage (Casper Crump) from destroying the world.
The incredibly talented Legends ensemble has Victor Garber and Franz Drameh as Firestorm; Brandon Routh as The Atom; Caity Lotz as White Canary; Dominic Purcell, Heat Wave; Wentworth Miller as Captain Cold, Ciara Renee, Hawkgirl; and Falk Hentschel as the ill-fated Hawkman.
Among the executive producers working with Warner Bros. Television is Greg Berlanti who said he talked to Mark Pedowitz about the wealth of hero and villain characters in the DC Universe and eventually came up with the angle of a Dirty Dozen/Ocean’s Eleven style for a teaming up of these characters on a singular kind of quest. Berlanti (who did Brothers & Sisters) explained, “We looked at the landscape and thought that there really wasn’t a classic kind of team-up show in this genre. But the big discovery for me about the tone of this is how much of a family show it really is. It reminds me a lot of some of the family shows I’ve done. They’re sort of this dysfunctional family.” And everyone has some sort of super powers.
There’s a lot of diversity in the show too, with the group of heroes who are different ethnicities, genders, ages, and accents. Berlanti said that was an intentional choice when putting the show together.
He insisted, “Our heroes need to represent the people that they’re saving. It makes the storytelling more interesting. It allows for us to go to more interesting places and keep working with better and better talent. That being said, I think everybody can take things even further. Looking at this ensemble, we don’t think it’s even as diverse as it should be or could be two or three years from now, in front of and behind the camera. I think it’s a real conversation point right now in Hollywood because people should be talking about it and doing as much as they can to change the landscape.” Tune in to see super-diverse superheroes. #
Recent Comments