‘Legends of Tomorrow’: Courtney Ford on How Nora Will Evolve Without Damien Darhk

Courtney Ford, who plays Nora Darhk on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, will return as a series regular for the show’s upcoming fourth season in spite of the death of her father, Damien.

Damien Darhk, who was a key villain in the show’s second and third seasons, was first introduced on Arrow, where he had a young daughter. By the time Nora showed up on Legends, she was a time-displaced and fully-grown version, bitter at a life lived without her father’s company while he chased immortality. Now, with Damien dead and Nora in possession of the Time Stone, the universe is kind of her oyster.

“I am really curious to see, and really excited to go deeper with Nora and see, what is she like without the influence of her father, and without the influence of Mallus?” Ford told ComicBook.com. “She’s been possessed since she was 13 years old — 13 into her thirties. So her father is gone, Mallus is gone, Ray gave her the Time Stone, so she’s out — and what is she going to do? Is she going to go straight and try to get a normal job somewhere and lay low, or is she going to go shake it up somewhere, cause some chaos? I don’t know. I’m really excited to see what happens.”

Nora also has a will-they-or-won’t-they thing going on with Ray Palmer, who is played by Ford’s real-life husband Brandon Routh. The pair first shared a lot of screen time after Ray was kidnapped by Damien and forced to work on technology to advance his evil plan. Throughout the season, Nora became Ray’s nemesis — the person he seemed to cross paths with the most — all while the pair slowly circled each other with obvious chemistry and interest. Eventually, Ray led the charge to try to redeem Nora, who had been possessed by a demon, and ultimately was responsible for her escape once she was freed of the demon’s control.

“It’s so hard, you know? And then the face? Sometimes I can’t even look at him,” she joked. “It’s really easy; we’ve actually worked together several times, and this has been the most fun. The other times we’ve worked together, we’ve been a couple, and nothing really complicated about that. This, the kind of antagonistic relationship, but also the layers, it’s confusing what’s happening, and their curiosity about each other, I think this is the most fun we’ve ever had.”

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow returns to Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW this October.