When it was first announced last fall that Arrow star David Ramsey would be returning to the Arrowverse not only to reprise his role as John Diggle/Spartan and direct several episodes across The CW’s DC series but also play a “mystery” character on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, fans immediately assumed that the mystery character would be Green Lantern, finally making the fan-favorite Diggle a ringslinger within the Arrowverse. It felt like a natural choice, especially after the last time fans saw Diggle at the end of Arrow with a mysterious, green glowing box. However, if fans were expecting a certain space cop to show up in this week’s Legends, they would be disappointed.
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In this week’s “Stressed Western”, which Ramsey also directs, the actor doesn’t play John Diggle at all but instead, Bass Reeves, a real-life historical figure that the series suggests is an ancestor of Diggle.
“I think there was a certain expectation: ‘Oh, you’re in a timeship! Last time we saw John Diggle, he encountered a green box,’” Ramsey told CBR. “‘Maybe that’s what we’re going to talk about on Legends! I think, in pure Legends fashion, it turns it on his heel: ‘Nope, it’s not what you expect! It’s actually something totally different!’”
As it turns out, fans weren’t the only ones who expected Legends to deal with the glowing green box. Ramsey told ComicBook.com that he initially thought the series would get into the situation when he was first pitched his overall Arrowverse appearances as well and was surprised how Legends wanted to take a different approach by having him play someone else entirely.
“So I think that’s in a big broad sense, I think that’s what any time we touch within the Arrowverse, anytime when we touch on these historical characters that would otherwise be a little more obscure our audience,” Ramsey said. “I think that’s always fantastic. That’s always great. And I appreciate when I was pitched, ‘Hey, John Diggle is going to appear across the universe.’ And to your point, my first thought was, okay, we’ll get into the glowing green thingy of it all. And everyone was, yes. Superman & Lois showrunners were yes. The Flash showrunners were, yes. Supergirl, yes. Batwoman, yes. Legends, let’s do something different with John Diggle. Let’s kind of within our universe, not touch on that. Let’s say that Bass Reeves was someplace in John Diggle’s history, in the past. He’s related to them in some sort of way. But we don’t spell that out and write that out, but obviously, that’s the story we tell them.”
Fans will next get to see Ramsey back playing John Diggle in an upcoming episode of Superman & Lois. The character is set to appear on The Flash and Supergirl later in the season as well.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW.
