DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow premiered in January 2016 on the CW. It was the third spinoff of the Arrowverse. It followed Arrow and The Flash. Supergirl joined the Arrowverse in the fall of 2016. Supergirl started off on CBS before moving to the CW. DC’s Legends of Tomorrow had a total of 110 episodes, being the fourth Arrowverse show to achieve 100 episodes.

Major Spoilers Follow

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow lasted seven seasons and ended on a cliffhanger. Given it celebrated 100 episodes and was a long running show, it was a major shock that the show would not get a proper ending. It also seemed like a given that all Arrowverse shows would get to end properly. Clearly, that was not the case given what happened with Legends as well as Batwoman which was also canceled the same year. The difference between both shows is that Batwoman was still fairly young being in its third season, while Legends of Tomorrow was in its seventh season and one of the longer running shows in the Arrowverse as well as the CW at the time. That alone should have allowed Legends to at least get one final season. It seemed fitting to have season 8 be the final season. The cast had changed a lot by this point anyway. Prior to the end of the show, it was announced that Nick Zano who played loveable historian Nate Heywood aka Steele was going to exit at the end of season 7. By season 7, all of the original cast was gone with the exception of Caity Lotz who played Sara Lance aka the White Canary and the captain of the team. Sara was the sister of Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) from Arrow. The audience had a deep bond with Sara having had several seasons of Arrow to get to know her before she went on to star on Legends. Also, to be honest I’m not sure how much longer Legends could have gone on after season 7. I definitely could have seen it lasting to a season 8. I could have seen it going as far as a season 10. That would depend on who was still willing to do it. I don’t know if the show would have been able to survive if Caity Lotz ever decided to exit the show. It’s hard to imagine Legends without Sara Lance.

Legends of Tomorrow had a huge cast that came and went throughout its seven-season run. The show starred Caity Lotz as Sara Lance aka White Canary, Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer aka The Atom, Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory aka Heatwave, Wentworth Miller as Leonard Snart aka Captain Cold, Nick Zano as Nate Heywood aka Steel, Franz Drameh as Jefferson Jackson aka Firestorm, Victor Garber as Martin Stein aka Firestorm, Jess Macallan as Ava Sharpe, Tala Ashe as Zari Tomaz and Zari Tarazi, Matt Ryan as John Constantine, Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Amaya Jiwe aka Vixen and Charlie, Oliva Swann as Astra Logue, Shayan Sobhian as Behrad Tarazi, Courtney Ford as Nora Darhk, Lisseth Chavez as Esperanza “Spooner” Cruz, Adam Tsekhman as Gary Green, Amy Louise Pemberton as Gideon, and Arthur Darvill as Rip Hunter.

The show also had Matt Letscher as a regular in season 2 as Eobard Thawn aka Reverse Flash. Matt Lescher was a recurring character in the Arrowverse predominantly on The Flash as Reverse Flash is the one who killed Barry Allen’s (Grant Gustin) mother. Reverse Flash would appear beyond season 2 in Legends. Also, Keiynan Lonsdale who played Wally West aka Kid Flash joined the show as a regular halfway through season 3. He left The Flash early on in its fourth season. By season 4 of Legends Wally was off the show. He never appeared on the show again, but he did recur on The Flash. In Season 1 Ciara Renee starred on the show as Kendra Saunders aka Hawkgirl alongside Falk Hentschel as Carter Hall aka Hawkman. Hawkgirl was on the entire first season while Hawkman was killed off early in the season. He was later revealed to be alive for the last few episodes. By the end of season 1 Hawkman and Hawkgirl left the team never to be seen again. For the 100^th episode, Hawkman did return but Hawkgirl did not. Ramona Young who played Mona Wu was also a regular on season 4. She made a few more appearances in season 5.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow went through many changes over its run. One of the biggest changes was the shift in tone. As the series progressed the show became more outrageous and that worked in its favor. It still was part of the Arrowverse, but it was drastically different than Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Batwoman. Legends could get away with anything. The tonal shift seemed better suited for Legends and its cast of characters. As wacky as Legends became the show had a lot of heart. Relationships were a big part of the show. There was an investment in the bromance of Ray Palmer and Nate Heywood. There was investment in Ray’s eventual romance with Nora Darkh. It was sad when Ray and Nora got married and they left the team and Ray had to leave his best friend Nate. They had a heartfelt goodbye. Jefferson “Jax” Jackson and Martin Stein were quite a duo as both halves of Firestorm. It was devastating when Martin got killed off in the Arrowverse crossover Crisis on Earth-X while Jax watched. Martin’s death prompted Jax to leave the team. Sara Lance finally found love with Ava Sharpe after years of complicated relationships. They got married near the end of the series. The finale also revealed they were expecting. It would have been nice to see how that would have turned out.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow deserved to have an eighth season even if that was going to be the end. The Flash got a shortened final season as did Arrow. Supergirl had a proper final season as well. It should have been a guarantee that Legends would have also gotten a proper final season given it was on for so long. Supergirl lasted six seasons. Legends is the third longest running show in the Arrowverse behind Arrow which lasted eight seasons and The Flash which lasted nine seasons. Legends had a few cliffhangers besides the pregnancy reveal for Sara and Ava. The team was arrested, and Booster Gold (Donald Faison) was introduced. It seemed to set up a bigger role for him in an eighth season. The other sad part is that there was no closure on another property. After the cancelation of Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash was the only Arrowverse show remaining, and it entered its final season. Given it only had 13 episodes there was not enough time for The Flash to wrap loose ends from the Arrowverse. The Flash predominantly focused on itself. None of the Legend characters appeared in the final season and there was no mention of the events from the finale.

Regardless DC’s Legends of Tomorrow still had a good run. It has become rare for shows to make it to 100 episodes let alone seven seasons. It is also even more rare when factoring in that Legends did not have full seasons the way the other shows did. At most Legends had 18 episodes. The Flash, Arrow, and Supergirl averaged 22-23 episodes for the bulk of their runs. Batwoman never had full seasons due to Covid. Season 1 came the closest with 20 episodes. DC’s Legends of Tomorrow had a great cast of characters and was a wild ride. It deserved to have closure and a proper ending like the other Arrowverse shows but 110 episodes and seven seasons is still a good run.