Is the Legion of Super-Heroes Coming to The CW’s DC TV Universe?

With this week’s revelation that Chris Wood will be playing longtime Legion of Super-Heroes member Mon-El in the second season of The CW’s Supergirl, the question on everyone’s mind is whether he might bring his time-tossed teammates with him.

The clues are certainly there: besides just Lar-Gand/Mon-El being the one who landed in National City at the end of Season One, there’s the fact that longtime Superman supporting cast member Maggie Sawyer is coming to the city as a member of the “Science Police.”

In the pages of DC Comics, Sawyer worked in both the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit and the Gotham City Police Department. As an out lesbian, Sawyer dated and became engaged to Kate Kane, Batwoman, in the New 52 relaunch of DC Comics. On the show, she’ll be working for the Science Police, an agency dealing with metahuman and extra-terrestrial threats that sounds like (if it’s anything like the comics version) it will be a more openly-operating unit than the DEO.

In the comics, of course, the Science Police is a high-tech law enforcement organization in the 31st Century, who are alternately allies with or antagonists of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Last season, Supergirl and The Flash EP and DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns hinted that the Legion of Super-Heroes would be appearing on one of the TV shows he oversees. A lot of fans assumed that would be DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which launched last week and which boasts time travel as a staple of the show — but then there were comments that the show wouldn’t travel past 2166, far short of the Legion’s founding in the 30th Century.

Instead, fans got a glimpse of a Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring — a ring boasting the Legion logo and given to all members, regardless of their ability to fly, becuase it also has other features, such as interplanetary translation, a homing beacon, and more — in both The Flash and Supergirl. On The Flash, it popped up in a “vision” while traveling between Earths. On Supergirl, a Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring was located in the Fortress of Solitude. At the time, Superman was off-planet…but we know he’s coming to Supergirl for the first two episodes of Season Three, which makes the appearance of a Legionnaire all the more intriguing.

While we’ve learned very little about the specifics of Superman’s career, we know that he’s had a long and storied career. Could he have interacted with the Legion of Super-Heroes by now in a way that’s greater than just trading a ring with one? Seems likely. Of course, it’s equally likely he could have got that ring from Booster Gold or Rip Hunter during a time-travel expedition.

Meanwhile, of course, the Legion of Super-Heroes have been off the table for a while in the comics. They haven’t had their own ongoing since the launch of the New 52, and when they did appear in the post-Flashpoint Universe, it was in Justice League United — a title that also starred Supergirl. The Rebirth publishing initiative seems to be pretty reflective of the film and TV slate, which makes me wonder: if the Legion pop up on Supergirl, might they end up playing a role in the Supergirl series that launches with a Rebirth one-shot on Wednesday?