SPOILER ALERT: This story continues details about tonight’s episode of the CW’s Legends of Tomorrow.
EXCLUSIVE: Tonight’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow featured a shocking development involving Wentworth Miller’s character Leonard Snart aka Captain Cold. I can reveal that the major event is a precursor to a status change for Miller, who was a regular on the first season of the team-up superhero drama series after recurring on Flash. He will no longer be a regular on Legends but has entered a series regular contract with Legends producing studio Warner Bros. TV, with his duties spread over the different Greg Berlanti DC shows, for the time being Legends and Flash.
Miller’s Legends arc was designed to have an end from the get-go as the actor had sought and signed a short-term deal. “We always knew that he wouldn’t be a permanent member of The Waverider,” Legends of Tomorrow, Flash and Arrow co-creator/executive producer Greg Berlanti said in an interview with Deadline. “We also knew we loved him on the show and all the shows, Flash as well.”
So Berlanti and his team pitched Miller a new arrangement where he would have flexibility and recur on multiple shows simultaneously as Snart. “What it really emulates to us is the comic books themselves where there really are a cast of characters,” Berlanti said. While Miller, who also has been filming the Prison Break followup, “won’t be part of the team of Legends on board of The Waverider next year, he will have a very active role on the show.”
Miller’s is “the first contract not applicable to just one show,” Berlanti said. “In success we hope to continue with other characters finding their way across all the shows.”
Spoiler Alert! On tonight’s episode of Legends, the Time Council revealed to Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) that they have been controlling the Legends actions through a device called the Oculus, aiding Vandal Savage’s rise to power. To defeat Vandal, the team tries to destroy the Oculus but there is a fail safe that must be manually held in place, and it is Snart who sacrifices himself and is killed in the explosion.
“He is a guy who who was a villain at the beginning, finding the hero in him by the end,” Berlanti said.
Because of the time-travel nature of Legends, dying on the show is not permanent.
Legends was built for flexibility with the core team. “One of joys and advantages is that it allows us to change in success who is on The Waverider and not,” Berlanti said. “Flash and Arrow are very much about building one team, while there is an anthology element to Legends.”
Legends already is recruiting two new team members for next season, casting a male and female new regulars.
“Every year for this show people should expect a new adventure,” said Berlanti, dropping a few hints about Season 2. “There will be new teammates, a new big bad. Mixing and matching things is part of the fun of the show.”
