'Legends of Tomorrow': Did the Legends Create Mallus?

Legends of Tomorrow's midseason hiatus ends tomorrow, and when the show returns so will the mystery of this season's major threat, Mallus.

While it initially seemed that the team would be dealing less with one evil force and more with cleaning up the mess they made when breaking time at the end of Season Two, it slowly unfolded that the real foe, Mallus, was not only very mysterious but very dangerous as well. Sara (Caity Lotz) discovered that firsthand when, at the end of the midseason finale, she briefly ended up in a dark, cold dimension where Mallus swore he would soon be free and subjecting the world to unendurable pain.

What exactly Mallus wants to do that will cause that unendurable pain is a mystery of its own, but the question fans have been trying to figure out first and foremost is who Mallus is. While fans have come up with various theories -- including one that the big bad is secretly Gary, the Time Bureau agent -- executive producer Marc Guggenheim has said that many have been off base.

"You know, I would say the vast majority of them tend to be really wrong," Guggeheim told ComicBook.com. "Really, really wrong. You know, that said, sometimes someone gets it. You know, if you have enough people out there sort of theorizing, there are going to be a few people who are right, you know?"

And one of those theories that just might be right is one that Mallus isn't so much the secret identity of someone the Legends already know but is, instead, a problem they created for themselves. The theory is that Mallus is a demon or demon-like entity previously either trapped in another dimension or part of another plane of existence. He's always existed but has been kept away from "our" world, possibly even by whatever created the Oculus. But when the Legends broke time in their efforts to stop the Legion of Doom from rewriting reality, whatever was holding Mallus back weakened allowing Mallus to begin influencing people, gaining followers and setting things up to where he is now poised to break into reality and unleash that unendurable pain.

The theory goes even further to guess that part of the reason Rip (Arthur Darvill) considered Mallus such a massive threat is connected to the destruction of the Oculus. With it destroyed, if the Oculus and Mallus were connected, its absence will make it even more challenging for anyone to combat Mallus, leaving the Legends as the only people who stand a chance at stopping him. The Legends created the issue, after all. They would need to be the one to fix it.

Consider it this way: Mallus might just be the granddaddy of all anachronisms.

And as for why Mallus spoke to Sara, with Sara being the person who is most responsible for the breaking of time, Mallus might be looking to take her as its physical form in the world. Right now, we haven't really seen Mallus and Guggenheim revealed that we're not likely to see a physical Mallus anytime soon. He told Entertainment Weekly the big bad is a fully CG character -- something that gives a bit more credibility to the idea that Mallus is less a being and more of a spirit or demon of sorts.

"You won't see him in the flesh immediately," Guggenheim said. "We're saving it toward the end of the year. He will be a fully CG character. The design of him is really cool. We're really pushing the envelope in terms of what we can do with the visual effects on the show."

Fans will get to see if this Mallus theory is accurate or just another false lead soon enough. Legends of Tomorrow returns tomorrow night.

Legends of Tomorrow airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.