DC’s Legends of Tomorrow will face a “much bigger threat” in season 2

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow may have been an uneven ride, but the series certainly did end on a high note. After chasing big bad Vandal Savage through several millenia that stretched from the old west through to the Vanishing Point that existed outside of time, Savage was finally beaten. Savagely. A thorough story-arc, completed in one season and without any lingering threads to tie off.

Weeeeeeell, sort of. Because now we’re jumping into spoiler territory, so you might want to stop reading if you haven’t seen that finale yet.

Right, so final episode of the first series. The gang is united, Rip Hunter has a new purpose in life and the timeline needs policing. And then a second Waverider ship crashes in front of them, with Rex Tyler walking out and revealing that he had been sent there by Mick. And the Justice Society of America. Oh snap son.

For those of you familiar with the source material, Tyler (played by Patrick “Suits” Adams) is the hero known as Hourman, a man of action who can pop a pill that grants him a massive increase in strength and durability for an hour. Sort of like cocaine then, but it won’t leave your nose riddled with more holes than Swiss cheese.

That’s a big teaser to end the first season with. And one hell of a way to start season 2 with a big bang. Which according to writer Marc Guggenheim is exactly where the series is headed. “With his final words in the finale, he planted a pretty deep flag about where we’re headed in season two, which is not just introducing Hourman but introducing his teammates in the Justice Society of America,” Guggenheim said to Collider.

For comic book fans, everyone knows the Justice Society is really the precursor to the Justice League, so it’s a pretty big move in our DC universe here on TV.

So while DC’s cinematic universe may be many months away from seeing the Justice League of America unite the seven on the big screen, their predecessors will be seen on the small screen. And that’s a big collective of characters to juggle next to the established cast of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Guggenheim is apparently up for it though, as the CW is clearly interested in seeing the Justice Society back on TV again after Smallville butchered the idea a few years ago. “God bless both the studio and the network,” Guggenheim said.

They’ve never said, ‘This is too big. You can’t do it.’ They have often said, ‘Jeez, this is so big, how are you going to do it?’ They say that a lot. They’re always asking us how the hell we’re going to pull something off. Inevitably, our answer is, ‘We literally have no idea. But we’ll figure out a way.’

Here’s wherein the twist gets twisted even further: we’ve already met most of the Justice Society in the other series that happens to star people who battle crime while donning colourful leather. Jay Garrick/ The Flash has popped up on the second season of The Flash and was even teased in the first season finale, Carter Hall/ Hawkman has been winging it on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Terry Sloane/ Mr Terrific has been helping Felicity out on Arrow and Ted Grant/ Wildcat popped up on the same show and got a boxing glove arrow in the face.

As for Jim Corrigan/ The Spectre, he was present on the gone-too-soon single season of Constantine. That just leaves Wesley Dodds/Sandman and Kent Nelson/Doctor Fate really. I’m certain Edge wouldn’t mind returning as another version of the Atom.

Now imagine that entire team, meeting the legends as they hop through the timelines. That’s a lot of acting in one room as the special effects budget is stretched to breaking point. “One of the other big things we’ve done in the season finale is we planted another flag in the form of Rip’s [Arthur Darvil] statement,” Guggenheim said. Because the Time Masters are essentially gone and the Legends have destroyed the Oculus, that all means that someone else has to do the job of the Time Masters. Our Legends take that on as their new responsibility. It’s sort of like, you break it, you buy it.

That’s really exciting to us, that our team of Legends, our misfits, are going to be responsible for the preservation of the timeline and protection of history. As we’ve seen, our team, our guys are not always the most responsible people around so maybe time has got some new troubles. But it will provide a lot of fodder, a lot of fun story for season two.

Which potentially means firmer ramifications for messing with history, as well as a new nemesis who’ll be an even bigger threat than Vandal Savage and his infinite supply of Ginsu knives:

The season two big bad is actually not going to be the [alien race of] Thanagarians. It’s going to be something else entirely. All I’ll really say about the nemesis in season two is Vandal Savage looks like a walk in the park compared to what the Legends will be facing. This will be a much, much bigger threat. I’m going to leave it at that because when we do reveal it, it’s going to be pretty big. People will be asking, ‘Vandal who?’ once they get the full picture of what our team is up against. It’s going to be way bigger than what you can even imagine, I can guarantee it.

The DC Comics universe has no shortage of threats who can end entire universes with a misplaced fart. But it should be interesting to see who emerges as the big bad for season 2 of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Last Updated: May 23, 2016