DC’s Legends of Tomorrow was a very different show in the first season, and at the end of that year, three characters who had driven most of the season’s story — Hawkman (Falk Hentschel), Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee), and Vandal Savage (Casper Crump) — left the series, missing the opportunity to be part of what became one of the most enjoyably bizarre shows in TV. While almost everyone in the Arrowverse eventually turns up again — and even Vandal got a brief cameo in Hell last season — the Hawks have been essentially absent from Legends of Tomorrow since the first season. Hentschel, though, teamed with The Last Blockbuster director Taylor Morden to produce a short film, shot during quarantine, that brings his version of Carter Hall back — with a bit of a twist.
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Taking place during the coronavirus pandemic, “Cooped Up” — which ComicBook.com is proud to debut above — sees Carter struggling with his identity after being left by Kendra (Ciara Renee). It’s a fun, offbeat opportunity to see Hentschel and Renee back in their roles, and it’s also an opportunity to fundraise a little bit for charity, since the economic downturn has put strain on charitable resources around the world.
“It was lovely to bring him back and to sort of do a different take, a lighter take, like what Casper [Crump] got to do,” Hentschel told ComicBook.com, referencing last season’s Vandal Savage cameo, where the villain was thrilled to see the Legends again because he was so bored in Hell. “And a bit of sensitivity too because I always wanted to bring some of that to the show, and we just never got around to it. It was really lovely, it was really nice to mess around with that, put him in a pink bathrobe and fluffy, weird slippers. I enjoyed it.”
It’s at this point that I should acknowledge that I wrote the first draft of this short, and that Hawkgirl wasn’t in that draft. In fact, much of what Hentschel brought to the table wasn’t in that draft, because the original idea was to give him plausible deniability. “I’m not playing Hawkman! There’s no wings, no mace, and we never use his name!” That kind of thing.
That’s not how the final cut ended up, as you can see above, and the short is funnier and more exciting for it.
The short is actually part of a larger project, which sees fans taking on short, mostly comedic vignettes set in the world of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. On June 9, a short anthology video will be released that will feature various alternate-reality takes on the Legends characters, inspired by last season’s “Legends of To-Meow-Meow” and this season’s “The One Where We’re Trapped on TV.” Other than Hentschel’s, the rest of the entries are primarily straightforward fan videos, with a variety of styles from live action to animation to action figure comedy.
The mace used in the “Cooped Up” short (as well as other props from the anthology) will be auctioned off to benefit the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which works to bail out small bookstores and comic shops struggling with financial hardship, and The Conscious Kid, which describes itself as “Parenting and Education Resources through a Critical Race Lens.” The Conscious Kid is aimed at helping kids understand identity, and is the nonprofit that will receive funds from Falk Hentschel‘s newly-created Cameo account. For the first month, 100% of his revenue will be directed to The Conscious Kid, and after that, 50% of all revenue he raises for the first year will go to the nonprofit.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, following episodes of DC’s Stargirl. The fan-made “Legends of To-Meow-Meow Project,” which will include Hentschel and Morden’s video, will be available to watch on YouTube on June 9, one week after the show’s season five finale.
