DC’s Legends of Tomorrow premieres TONIGHT at 8PM (ET/PT) on The CW, as we see a group of icons from the DC Comics world introduced in Arrow and The Flash uniting and traveling through time to stop the threat of Vandal Savage.
One of the most prominent characters in Legends of Tomorrow is Ray Palmer, played by Brandon Routh, an actor you might remember as having a big DC Comics pedigree. Routh played Superman in the 2006 film Superman Returns, and then he came on to Season 3 as Arrow as Palmer, who had a flying suit that gave him the power of the Atom. Some fans might have cried “Iron Man,” but earlier this season, it was seen that Ray now has the ability to shrink, much like his comic book counterpart.
You can watch video of our interview with Routh from the Vancouver studio of Legends below; if the written word is more your thing, a transcription follows.
You’re also all invited to our Legends of Tomorrow forum to count down to tonight’s premiere!
Ray and Sara both came “back from the dead” and now they’re joining this team. What is their dynamic going to be like?
It’s a little bit yet to be unveiled. We’ve had group scenes and little asides to each other – little pieces here and there – but that’s a combo that hasn’t been established yet. Ray and Sara, Ray and Rip, and Ray and Jax really haven’t had too much character interaction other than “we gotta do this, we gotta do that.” Mission type stuff. I look forward to it.
We’ve seen a picture of you with Mick and Captain Cold in the bushes. What’s the dynamic like for those characters? That seems like a fun dynamic.
I am having a lot of fun with it, and the writers are having fun making a team of us. And we learn a lot. Ray’s learning a lot from Captain Cold and Heat Wave, about himself, that maybe he doesn’t know everything about everything, and there’s value in having these guys a part of the team. You can understand why Rip would bring these guys along. Most of the stuff I’ve had has been with them. Putting the two polar opposites or the three polar opposites together has made fireworks in its own ways, and fun story stuff, I think. Comedy and drama, alike.
Would Ray use the time machine to save Anna?
Oh, I think the temptation is certainly there. I think he certainly wouldn’t put it past himself to at least think about it and entertain the idea.
How is Ray dealing with all of this?
He’s extremely psyched about it. I think he’s the most gung-ho of anybody in this journey. Certainly about the time travel, and the science, and “how does it work” and all of that stuff. He and Professor Stein go back and forth, theorizing about how this is even possible. He really thinks it’s awesome.
Because of the nature, the epicness of the journey, that’s really what excites him about joining Rip’s team. It’s a bigger, more epic journey, and he’s all about that.
Does he ever get homesick?
No homesickness yet, necessarily. I think things that happen throughout the first five episodes certainly make him think about his past and have some nice emotional moments to consider the journey. But not yet. When he goes, he has a solid reason and belief and focus of why he is going on the mission.
Is his personality changed at all after what he went through on Arrow?
He didn’t come back from the dead. He just came back from anyone knowing that he’s alive. A little bit different. I mean, a certain kind of insanity could certainly ensue from being that way for six months. The journey changed him. What he did — and I think he compartmentalizes it a little bit, that experience — but it’s what he comes back to, the state of his company, the state of his life, the city…. “Did he have impact, or did he not?” I think is his journey. Processing all of that is all part of the shift of his being gone, and being away, and coming back.
Will we see more of what happened to Ray during that downtime, and how he dealt with that world?
There was talk about that. I don’t know i that will ever be — I think that was kind of a wish list thing, certainly for me. It would have been cool. But I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not. I don’t think there’s enough worked into the current storyline, of the fact of Ray in that time, for it to work right now. That’s why the changes have come mostly from him coming back into the world versus the experience that he had.
We may go back and play in that world a little bit. Or, something like that might happen again. Certainly, there will be adventures of Ray being small and fighting bugs and other things that seem bigger than life to him, at some point down the road. I certainly talk about the Sword of the Atom stuff all the time. Mostly because I want to have a sword, and I want to sword fight in the Atom suit, or just as Ray.
Wouldn’t The CW want to get you in that loin cloth?
[Laughs] Well, I don’t know if I’d change the suit. I don’t think I’d go that far. That’d be a long couple of days of shooting. A lot of working out.
Will there be any alterations to the Atom costume in the
new series?
No changes necessarily as of right now. We just changed a little bit of the lighting mechanism in the helmet so that you can see my face a little bit better. As of right now, but we’re early.
What are the interactions like between Ray and Stein?
There’s a little bit of a competition, and there’s a little bit of a history, actually, between the two of them, which we find out through the course of the first couple episodes, which, then you understand a little bit of the back and forth.
Take a look at some photos from the first episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow here and be sure to follow our Twitter feed for the show!
1 Comment
So, nothing’s really changed. He still wears a red and blue suit and gets to fly. ;)