[This article contains SPOILERS for Legends of Tomorrow season 1 and The Flash season 2]
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DC’s Legends of Tomorrow wrapped up a complex freshman season of time-hopping with the addition of a new, mysterious character. While closing out the first season, the show also included more tantalizing breadcrumbs leading to a potentially broader Arrowverse collaborative organization, which could add some powerful forces to the televised DCEU. Planning is currently underway on what promises to be a fascinating seconds season for Legends, one that will include a major crossover as well.
After losing a regular player during the finale, and Wentworth Miller flitting about the Arrowverse, the Legends of Tomorrow crew is looking a little thin at the moment. Apparently the show will up their superhero quotient for Season 2, as Nick Zano signs on for Waverider duties.
Deadline is reporting Zano (Minority Report) will enter the series as Dr. Nate Heywood (which Screen Rant predicted). The actor previously had parts on other CW shows such as Melrose Place and 90210. For those unfamiliar, historian Nate Heywood is the grandson of Henry Heywood, also known as Commander Steel (who, to avoid confusion, is not John Henry Irons a.k.a. Steel). Commander Steel first cropped up from DC’s stables in 1978, as a member of World War II-era Justice Society. His grandson, Hank Heywood III, later took on the mantle, becoming a member of the Justice League.
Another of Henry’s grandsons took up the cause in the 2007 Geoff Johns’s run of Justice Society of America. However, he shrugged off the aggrandized title of Commander Steel for the simpler Citizen Steel. Casting Zano as Dr. Heywood doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll also portray his superhero alter ego. However, creator/executive producer Marc Guggenheim suggested last month that “the season finale planted some very significant flags in terms of what the new concept of the show will be in season 2.” Guggenheim’s cryptic “flags” remark sounds like further hints at an overarching Justice Society story arc, which would undoubtedly include Steel.
In addition to Citizen Steel, the presence of Jay Garrick (or Earth 3’s Golden Age Flash), revealed on The Flash finale, certainly ties into a larger JSA plot. Also, Rex Tyler/Hourman’s entry into the Arrowverse during the Legends of Tomorrow finale was a more blatant reference to the superhero organization. Tyler himself referenced the JSA during the show as well. Zano’s casting as a regular named Heywood certainly doesn’t sound coincidental. The show is also seeking an African American character from the 1940s, whose bio sounds suspiciously like that of Zinda Blake, i.e. JSA regular Lady Blackhawk. At this point, it sounds like it’s not a question of will the JSA show up in the TV DCEU, so much as when and in what capacity?
With so many plots in the works, though, Guggenheim and co-creator Greg Berlanti could merely be doling out fan-service. Still, considering Johns's current status in the DC creative world – combined with his interest in/contributions to the Arrowverse – it increases the likelihood that Legends of Tomorrow’s second season will be epic in more ways than one.
NEXT: Will Flash & Arrow Fans Ever Get a TV Justice League?
Supergirl season 2 will air at 8pm Mondays on The CW in Fall 2016, The Flash will air in the same timeslot on Tuesdays, Arrow on Wednesdays, and Legends of Tomorrow on Thursdays.
Source: Deadline