Complete Coverage: TCA Winter Press Tour
Pasadena, Calif. -- DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The CW’s big mid-season swing, was born following a phone call to Greg Berlanti from CW president Mark Pedowitz, executive producer Berlanti said at a press tour session for the series. Pedowitz said, “You have this wealth of additional characters,” explained Berlanti, and pitched a heroes versus villains concept. Berlanti sat with his producers and hashed out a concept. “I got really excited about this Dirty Dozen, Oceans 11 kind of mashup,” he noted.
One revelation as the program took shape, added Berlanti, is “how much of a family show it is.”
Legends features a massive ensemble cast of superheroes bringing varied attributes to the team. Executive producer Phil Klemmer likened them to a “disparate band of knuckleheads…fun knuckleheads.”
Cast members include Victor Garber, Wentworth Miller and Caity Lotz.
Earlier in the day, Pedowitz likened Legends to a popcorn movie. “It is fun,” he said. “It is big.”
The producers were asked if the superhero genre is getting old. As long as the shows are distinctive, said Geoff Johns, there’s room for more. “They all have to explore something different and be diverse in [their] own way,” he said. ‘I don’t personally think we’re at a saturation point.”
Hundreds of comic books come out every month, he added, most all presumably offering something fresh.
Special effects figure big into time-traveling Legends, and Klemmer said the experience of having previously produced Flash and Arrow helped.
EP Marc Guggenheim said the vast superhero cast spells unique special effects challenges. “The number of characters and different type of effects that have to be done every single episode,” he said, “puts it at a different level in terms of degree of difficulty.”
