The second season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is headed our way on Thursday, October 13, and recently, we spoke with the show’s Executive Producer, Phil Klemmer, for some hints on what we can expect from Season 2 of The CW series, which will bring the legendary Justice Society of America into the mix as well as an ancestor of the Vixen in the form of her grandmother, Amaya.
It sounds like the show will continue to feature some DC Comics favorites and for Season 2, the new ones will make the mix even better. As our interview was long, we’ve split this into two parts. Read the first part of our interview with Phil Klemmer here.
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: Can you talk about how Mick Rory’s opinion of the others has changed?
PHIL KLEMMER: We never want to rehabilitate him fully, and we never want to take away his edge. He’s been widowed, effectively. Having lost his partner – the guy who basically called the shots…. I don’t know if Mick knows where he belongs. It’s not like he can go back to Central City in 2016, but he doesn’t really belong on the ship, either, and so there is sort of simmering resentment. Snart sacrificed himself for this team and this purpose that Rory doesn’t fully believe in, and now, he’s going to punish the team just by staying. He’s like “you guys took my partner from me. Now you have to deal with me, because I don’t know where else I belong.”
What can you say about the new additions to the show for Season 2?
Nate Heywood [Nick Zano] is the first non-superhero [on the show]; the fact that we inherited all of these characters from other shows was great, because everybody wanted to watch our show; the downside of that was that there was no origin story to tell, because you knew who Ray Palmer was. You know who Sara Lance was. We want to meet a guy that nobody knows; in fact, who doesn’t even know that he is destined to become a superhero, because that gives you the first act of the Spider-Man movie. Tobey Maguire was like “Oh my God! I can do this! But I’m not great at doing it! And oh, I’m using it for selfish purposes, but should I use it for good?” You want a neophyte; a guy who’s been dropped into this world from the regular world, to point out the absurdity and the fun, so that was why we wanted to have Nate become a superhero within Season 2.
And then with Amaya [Maisie Richardson-Sellers], we wanted somebody who came from a different generation; we wanted people who force our Legends to look at themselves in a different light.
What era is Amaya from, exactly?
She’s from the Forties. She’s from the Golden Age of the JSA. She’s the “greatest generation.” She is of the JSA that stopped Hitler. It’s like having a grandfather who got off a landing vehicle at Normandie, and I’m trying to complain to him about “my latte is too cold,” and he’s just like “oh yeah?”
Kendra can help you with that.
Yeah! [Laughs]
With the JSA, are we only going to see them in the 1940s, or is there a team that exists now?
That is going to be part of our season-long mystery that will have a strong intersection with the Legion of Doom. We didn’t just bring them in because we thought it would be cool; they are tied up deeply into the DNA of our season-long mystery and our struggle with the Legion of Doom.
What’s the over/under on us seeing a floating Darth Vader helmet for the Legion of Doom?
That’s very slim.
Wentworth Miller has a lot of other projects going on in addition to his multi-show contract. Will you all be able to successfully weave him in without too many conflicts?
Absolutely. I was more worried for Dom [Dominic Purcell], because Dom went from us to Prison Break, straight into this, with zero break, but the dude’s a tank.
What can you say to sell the season to someone who might have dropped off during Season One and they might need some convincing?
[Episode] 201 is effectively a new pilot. That’s really the joy of this show; it was never designed to be the traditional network television [model], which is the running-in-place, sleight of hand trick. When we blew up the Vanishing Point, we blew up the conceit of Season 1. I’ll just say as writers, it’s such a joy writing the second season, because it feels so fresh and new, and full of all of the things we love.
I’m sure we’ll do the exact same thing at the end of this season. It is like a semi-anthology show. It’s not meant to be the same characters, or the same stakes, or the same conceit; it’s built to change. It is the sort of show that who knows how many seasons we go, but by the time we get to Season Five or the seventh season, it will have nothing in common. It’s fun.
Does Rip Hunter know his purpose, now that everything involving the Time Masters and Vanishing Point are over?
The thing about Rip is [that] we gave him a really heavy, heavy backstory. We killed his family, we put him in charge of saving the world, we then had the institution that he had sworn his allegiance to prove corrupt… and Arthur Darvill is a really, really fun guy. We want to just unburden him so we can access other aspects of himself as a performer. But yeah… what do you do after you’ve saved the world? It’s a really interesting question, and we want to see that version of Rip who is trying to figure out who he is.
The official description for Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 reads “a mystery looms: the fate of former Captain Rip Hunter.” What’s that all about?
The interesting thing for us to explore is that Rip was clearly the glue that was holding our team together. It’s like herding cats, and how do you herd cats when you’ve lost your Captain? The thing I will say about Season Two, it’s much more democratic. Whether Rip’s there or not, the Legends have a bit of swagger. They’ve saved the friggin’ world. They never listened to Rip in the first place, but now, they’re like “You know what? You’re not the boss of me! We have our own notions about how this should function!” It’s not a monarchy here, and Rip is certainly not King onboard the ship.
“Captain Rip Hunter” has always had a little asterisk beside it. I will say that by Season 2, that asterisk is a lot bigger.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow returns to The CW October 13. For more on the series and spoilers for the upcoming season visit our dedicated Legends portal DCLegendsTV!
