Legends of Tomorrow References An '80s Classic In Episode Filming This Week

In season 2, DC's Legends of Tomorrow explored the relationship its main characters had with [...]

By Russ Burlingame - August 14, 2017 11:32 pm EDT

In season 2, DC's Legends of Tomorrow explored the relationship its main characters had with Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars. Now, the title of a season 3 episode currently in production suggests it's E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial's turn.

In a tweet from showrunner Marc Guggenheim, the fourth episode of the season, which started filming this week, was revaeled to be titled "Phone Home," a likely nod to the Steven Spielberg classic.

The episode was written by Matthew Maala and will be directed by Kevin Mock.

It is difficult to guess whether there will be actual aliens in the episode -- certainly not unheard-of in the Arrowverse, but pretty rare in the solo episodes -- or whether it might be something else to justify that title...such as a visit to Alexander Graham Bell, or Spielberg himself.

After the defeat of Eobard Thawne and his equally nefarious Legion of Doom, the Legends face a new threat created by their actions at the end of last season. In revisiting a moment in time that they had already participated in, they have essentially fractured the timeline and created anachronisms – a scattering of people, animals, and objects all across time! Our team must find a way to return all the anachronisms to their originaltimelines before the time stream falls apart. But before our Legends can jump back into action, Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) and his newly established Time Bureau call their methods into question. With the Time Bureau effectively the new sheriffs in town, the Legends disband – until Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell) discovers one of them in the middle of his well-deserved vacation in Aruba. Seeing this as an opportunity to continue their time travelling heroics, Sara (Caity Lotz) wastes no time in getting the Legends back together.

We reunite with billionaire inventor Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), the unconventional historian-turned-superhero Nick Heywood (Nick Zano), and Professor Martin Stein (Victor Garber) and Jefferson "Jax" Jackson (Franz Drameh), who together form the metahuman Firestorm. Once reunited, the Legends will challenge the Time Bureau's authority over the timeline and insist that however messy their methods may be, some problems are beyond the Bureau's capabilities. Some problems can only be fixed by Legends.