LEGENDS OF TOMORROW Producers Talk About The Show's Tone & Anthology Format
The CW's Legends Of Tomorrow looks set to have a big impact on the DC TV universe - even before it airs! The producers recently opened up about the spin-off's tone, and revealed that it will be an anthology series in the style of American Horror Story. Read on for more...
Though it's not due to debut until early 2016, we've heard plenty of interesting details about Legends Of Tomorrow so far. But where does The CW's latest superhero spin-off fit in comparison to the darker tone of Arrow and the more light-hearted world of The Flash? "Ours will definitely be a little closer to [The Flash]," showrunner Phil Klemmer revealed, "It’s more like a caper, because it’s sort of like ‘Ocean’s 11′, where you have a team of misfits, a dirty dozen, and they’ve been sent on essentially a suicide mission." It seems it won't be all smiles though, as Klemmer teased a few darker moments along the way. "At a certain point, we will have darkness emerge and characters will betray one another and be tempted by the dark side. And others might not make it along for the full trip. And others might be lost in weird time periods.”
Unlike its sister shows, Legends Of Tomorrow will apparently possess a more unique storytelling format. “It’s an anthology show," Klemmer claimed, "This is not designed to go forever. This season is meant to be standalone." It's easy to see the appeal of this. Such shows are very popular at the moment - with the likes of True Detective and Fargo garnering widespread acclaim. While the DC TV spin-off may not be quite as self-contained as True Detective, viewers can hopefully still look forward to a similar vein of "tightly serialized" storytelling.
Additionally, this anthology format will have a big impact on future seasons as well. "The way we think of it is each arc, each season is its own separate movie," added EP Marc Guggenheim, "What we want to do is have each separate movie have its own identity. So almost to the point where each season was telling one big story that you could sort of subtitle, like the way you do subtitle American Horror Story, if that makes sense."
This seems to suggest that (were Legends Of Tomorrow successful enough to warrant a renewal) a second season would focus on a different villain, story and maybe even new heroes altogether! It's a significant depature from the kind of superhero shows we've seen so far, but it's also an interesting experiment. If things go to plan, we could be seeing all kinds of characters from DC Comics featured on Legends Of Tomorrow - potentially for years to come. What do you think of these developments? Sound off with your thoughts below!
Legends Of Tomorrow will premiere on The CW during early 2016.