Establishing themselves as some of the best superhero television series to have ever graced the small screen, Arrow and The Flash are currently enjoying their fourth and second seasons respectively, and have helped build an incredible reputation for the DC TV universe on The CW, even paving the way for the now-successful Supergirl, currently in its first season on CBS.
Soon, The CW will be making way for a third series in DC's Legends of Tomorrow, where established characters from both Arrow and The Flash will come together to battle against one man intent on gaining a never-ending supply of power. Though it's been pushed back following an original scheduled premiere date towards the end of 2015, we now know a few things about the series - here's everything you should know before the now-confirmed January premiere.
When does it start?
The series premiere comes to the US on Thursday, January 21 at 8/7c on The CW. In the UK, the show will join Arrow and The Flash on Sky1, but a start-date is yet to be confirmed. It's now been revealed that the show won't start on Sky1 until March 3 - bummer.
Legends' first episode will also be a two-parter, meaning we could get an extended first look at the show, or be kept hanging for a week with some incredible cliffhangers.
Which characters will come to the show from Arrow and The Flash?
Victor Garber returns as Martin Stein AKA one half of Firestorm with his new morphing partner Jay Jackson (Franz Drameh). Also onboard is Brandon Routh's Ray Palmer AKA Atom, Caity Lotz's Sarah Lance AKA White Canary, Dominic Purcell's Mick Rory AKA Heat Wave and Wentworth Miller's Leonard Snart AKA Captain Cold.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl will also join the Legends universe following their debuts in Flash and Arrow, but at what point is still yet to be determined.
Could Arrow and The Flash originals pop-up?
It's possible! Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin, David Ramsey and Katie Cassidy are all listed for one episode on IMDB. With the show's crossover being used as the platform to launch Legends, it would feel wrong not to see them get involved at some point.
So who's Arthur Darvill playing?
Darvill will be stepping into the role of Rip Hunter, and he arguably has one of the most pivotal roles in the new show. Taking on the mantle of Rip Hunter, he's a time-travelling influencer who brings the team of misfits together in a bid to stop chaos from reigning down on the entire universe.
Speaking about the role, Darvill said at New York Comic Con in 2015: "Yeah, I think having read a lot of the comics, what's quite nice is that I couldn't quite get a grip on who he was, personality-wise. I think that's kind of quite interesting. I love the idea that he's very private and he has that kind of adventurous side but he doesn't like to reveal too much of himself. But he's got some dark stuff that's happened to him in the past (or the future) that he's dealing with.
"What I feel they've done so well writing-wise and what they've asked me to do with it is sort of exciting and takes it to a different place that it hasn't been to in the comic books yet. I think that's such an honor to be able to do, but I think the fans of the comic books will be very pleased with the way the character develops."
He added: "He's got his own agenda, and whether that fits into everyone else's is yet to be seen. I think there are some serious trust issues because he doesn't like to give anything away and he's trying to achieve what he wants to achieve. He kind of keeps people on a need-to-know basis and it doesn't always necessarily work out well."
And who's the show's Big Bad?
We know his name - Vandal Savage - and Almost Perfect actor Casper Crump is the man who's playing him. Immortal, he could prove tricky to take down, but if Rip Hunter's team aren't successful in stopping his quest for far-reaching power, he'll not just destroy the world, but the entire time stream.
The official synopsis for the show paints him in a certain light, and reads: "When heroes alone are not enough... the world needs legends. Having seen the future, one he will desperately try to prevent from happening, time-travelling rogue Rip Hunter is tasked with assembling a disparate group of both heroes and villains to confront an unstoppable threat - one in which not only is the planet at stake, but all of time itself. Can this ragtag team defeat an immortal threat unlike anything they have ever known?"
DC villain Valentina Vostok has also joined the show, with Mr. Robot star Stephanie Corneliussen taking on the character. TVLine say she'll be in multiple episodes of the season.
She's described as: "A gifted and beautiful Soviet physicist who will stop at nothing to defend her precious 'Motherland'. When the Legends encounter her at the height of the Cold War, they suspect her of working with Vandal Savage on a secret weapon.
"Ray/The Atom and Leonard/Captain Cold must vie for Valentina's affection in an attempt to thaw her cold heart, and find out where her allegiance truly lies - before she completes her project and potentially turns the tide of the Cold War."
An iconic comics character?
It was also learned recently that iconic character Jonah Hex would be making an appearance in the series, with co-creator Marc Guggenheim saying: "if you're going to do a story set in the DC Universe version of the Old West, you simply MUST include Jonah Hex in it." Johnathon Schaech will be slotting into the role, according to CBR.
Constantine?
There's been rumours ever since Constantine's appearance in Arrow that the demon hunter could be making a big impact on Legends, and without getting too excited about something that hasn't been confirmed, it could be IMMENSE.
Now that NBC have officially given up on the Constantine series and nobody else wanted to pick it up, could this be the right home for him? Only time will tell.
Who's Jewel Staite playing?
Well, her role hasn't been revealed just yet but, according to showrunner Phil Klemmer: "She's related to one of our heroes. We will find that she's not a person off the street. We are going into the most distant future that we will be visiting, and we will find that she is the biological result of something that one of our characters either directly or indirectly did before their recruitment in the pilot, in 2016. As we know, when we pull our characters out of the timeline, they cease to have an effect on the future, but this will be a sort of Ghost of Christmas Future where somebody will realize that something that they did before they left had a butterfly effect on the future that will effectively - they will have aided and abetted Vandal Savage's rise to power."
What about Peter Francis James' role?
According to a comicbook.com exclusive, Peter Francis James has been cast as Dr. Aldus Boardman, and he'll have a huge part to play in the Hawkman and Hawkgirl storyline coming to the show.
Warner Bros. Television have described the Doctor as a Classics professor at St. Roch University, bordering on obsession when it comes to researching the story of Chayara (Hawkgirl) and Prince Khufu (Hawkman), as well as their link to Vandal Savage. He becomes the team's only hope of finding and destroying Savage so that they can return home, but when the group learn a secret about Boardman they insist he becomes a bigger part of their journey.
What's executive producer Greg Berlanti got to say?
He's likened the show's tone to some of cinema's biggest hits, saying: "I compare the shows to old Westerns; we have a lot of lone gunmen and sheriffs in town, and this one is very much an ode to things like The Magnificent Seven or those great heist pics like Ocean's Eleven where you get all of those colours at the same time, and a true ensemble, and that was the fun of it... you want that Rat Pack-y kind of vibe of all this crew hanging out, as disparate and as different as they are."
And the cast?
Caity Lotz has spoken a little about her character's reinvention, following her Lazarus Pit resurrection we saw in Arrow's fourth season.
She explains: "We want to make it different, there's going to be changes. She's still Sara Lance but there has to be repercussions for everything that she's been through, so I'm hoping we really get to play with that stuff... I would think that it's going to have a toll. Just like Thea went into the Lazarus Pit and we saw how it affected her, and Sara was dead for a long time so I feel like there's going to be a big shift."
Here's a video from DC All Access, where some of the cast also talk about the show's structure, super powers and more.
Will Legends of Tomorrow pave the way for MORE spinoffs?
At this point, no. The CW President Mark Pedowitz has said that this will be the last DC spinoff for the network for the time being, and who can blame him? During the 2015 Television Critics Association press tour, he said: "There is no intention, at this point, to spin anything else off."
Where are the teasers?
You can also check out a gallery of character posters below...
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