Earlier this week Wentworth Miller revealed that his time as part of The CW’s Arrowverse was drawing to a close as he was shooting his final scenes.
Miller, who has played Captain Cold/Leonard Snart on Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash for years, has been a fan-favorite often providing sly comic relief both as an antagonist for Barry Allen’s Flash (Grant Gustin) and Mick Rory’s (Dominic Purcell) counterpart on Legends of Tomorrow.
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But before he was Leondard Snart, Miller starred on Fox’s Prison Break as Michael Scofield, a structural engineer who gets himself sent to prison as part of an elaborate plan to help his brother, the falsely convicted Lincoln Burrows — played by none other than Dominic Purcell — escape.
With both Miller and Purcell teamed up in the Arrowverse, it’s only natural that there would be clever Prison Break references peppered througout both The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. Now, as Miller prepares to leave the Arrowvese, here’s a look back at some of the best Prison Break references in The CW’s Arrowverse.
Casting
Quite possible the best Prison Break reference in the Arrowverse isn’t so much a line or a gag cleverly tucked into an episode, but is instead the casting of a handful of Prison Break actors. In addition to to Miller and Purcell playing somewhat villainous characters (at least initially) in the Arrowverse, two other Prison Break stars appear. Robert Knepper, who played gangster Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell on Prison Break appeared on both Arrow and The Flash as William Tockman, better known as the villain Clock King while Peter Stomare, who played John Abruzzi on Prison Break was Arrow‘s Werner Zytle, also known as Count Vertigo.
“This isn’t my first prison break.”
Miller’s Leonard Snart doesn’t mince words and neither did writers for Legends of Tomorrow when it came to making one of the more memorable references to Miller’s previous acting role. In the show’s fifth episode, Snart tells Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) that their plan to break Martin Stein (Victor Garber) out of a Soviet gulag isn’t his first prison break.
Escaping just like old times
In the second season episode of Legends entitled “Doomworld” the team arrives in a reality controlled by the Legion of Doom and that includes an evil Leonard Snart who is able to rob banks simply for fun. When he and Mick exit a bank only to have the police let them go without issue, Mick complains a bit about how it doesn’t seem right. Snart’s response is a pretty awesome wink at the actors’ history on Prison Break. Snart tells Mick that he can arrange for them to be arrested simply so they can mount an escape “just like old times.”
Captain Cold’s car
In The Flash‘s first season episode “Revenge of the Rogues” Snart returns to Central City with the cold gun he stole from Team Flash and brings Purcell’s Mick Rory with him and in one scene, Snart drives up in a big, older model Lincoln Town Car. As it’s the first appearance of Mick as a part of Snart’s new criminal gang, the Rogues, the use of a car that happens to share the same name as Purcell’s Prison Break character is a classic nod to fans excited to see Wentworth and Purcell together on screen once again.
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c followed by Legends of Tomorrow at 9/8c on The CW.
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