Legends of Tomorrow EP on How They Plan To Make “Crisis on Infinite Earths” Work

Over the last couple of seasons, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow has blazed its own trail within the Arrowverse. The series, which centers on a group of lovable losers on board a time-traveling spaceship, has rewritten the reality the characters exist in and the nature of the world around them so many times that it sometimes becomes difficult to reconcile the idea that the world of Legends — where the government operates a Time Bureau, ARGUS is just a few short years away from totalitarian rule, and industrialist Ray Palmer recently went on television to reveal that magical creatures are real — lines up easily with the same timeline in which Arrow and The Flash take place.

Still, during The CW‘s recent upfront presentation in New York, the network revealed key art for “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” the network’s planned December-January crossover event. The crossover will take place over five parts — presumably an episode of each of the five Arrowverse shows (which, besides those listed above, also include Supergirl and Batwoman) — including Legends of Tomorrow. The Legends being pictured on the imagery the network has released for “Crisis” means there is no need for the Legends to explain away their non-involvement in the crossover again next season like they did this time. Instead, executive producer Phil Klemmer told ComicBook.com that he and the writers have already started to figure out how the show will retain its personality while still “playing nice” with the other series on the network during “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”

“We’ve got a trick up our sleeve,” Klemmer promised. “There is a way. It’s a very, very fine needle to thread. But I do feel like there’s a way that we can coexist with the greatest crossover ever. And again, we’re not forsaking the Arrowverse. We love it. But I think once we established this habit of reinventing ourselves every season, you’ve stepped onto the hamster wheel. Or not a hamster wheel…wait, that sounds miserable. Onto a Merry-Go-Round. And that thing is spinning so friggin’ fast right now, we’ll be thrown to our death if we try to step off, so the only alternative is to keep going faster and faster. I think we’re made confident by the fact that the things on our show that seem like the wildest conceits — musicals or puppets — kind of remind the audience of the core strength of the show, which is the characters and their relationships. In a weird way that the more outlandish the show is, the more real the Legends feel. So nah, we’re going to rein it in, but we’ll find a new way to be weird next season.”

So far not much is known about the next season of Legends, a brief synopsis for which was released at upfronts: “As we reach the conclusion of season four, a demon named Neron has possessed the body of Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), leaving John Constantine (Matt Ryan) to wrest Ray’s soul from the hands of Astra Logue (Olivia Swann), the “innocent girl” he failed to rescue from Hell years all those long years ago. Meanwhile, up in our world, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) and her girlfriend Ava Sharpe (Jes Macallan) must deal with a magical creature-fueled paranoia. Harvesting souls via an insidious Palmer Tech app, Neron is poised to ‘Make Earth Hell Again.’ To make matters worse, Sara’s Timeship has been turned into a Noah’s Ark for various unruly monsters and magical creatures. Oh, and Ava’s Time Bureau was taken over by an evil Fairy Godmother. To defeat Neron, the Legends realize in the end that they will have to sacrifice one of their own. But it gets way worse… In attempting to change her future, Zari Tomaz (Tala Ashe) will accidentally change not just the past she shared with Nate Heywood (Nick Zano), but fundamentally change who the Legends are in season five. Can our team go back to who they were next season? Can a reformed arsonist turned romance novelist Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell), a half-werewolf named Mona Wu (Ramona Young), and a punk rocker shapeshifter named Charlie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) stop the literal Hell that Astra unleashes on the world in the finale? And what happens when the Legends awaken the original guardians of Time (no, not the Time Masters, sillies, that was season one!) who wish to erase everything the Legends have ‘screwed up for the better’ over the past four seasons?”

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow will end its fourth season on Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. “Crisis on Infinite Earths” will launch in December.