How Villains Impact Legends of Tomorrow S3

The Legends will be facing some new and familiar enemies, when their time-travel adventures continue. The eponymous team of misfits on Legends of Tomorrow fought some serious battles in season 2, even facing the end of their own existence when the Legion of Doom used the Spear of Destiny to alter reality. The Legends' final solution for thwarting the power-hungry Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), and Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher) involved crossing their own timelines and subsequently "breaking time."

The Legends of Tomorrow season 3 synopsis reveals that Sara (Caity Lotz) and her crew on the Waverider will be working together to fix all of the aberrations in time that they have created. That causes them to butt heads with former Waverider captain Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) and his new Time Bureau, but thankfully he won't be the villain this season. That job falls to others, including a returning Legion of Doom member.

Damien Darhk, who also took Team Arrow to dark places in season 4 of that series, will once again torment the Legends in season 3. As reported by Comic Book, LoT executive producer Phil Klemmer had more than one reason for bringing back the formidable foe one more time:

Legends of Tomorrow Legion of Doom Damien Darhk Rip Hunter

"You know he was kind of glib and a lighter version of himself last season. We want to give him some real teeth and a real sort of sinister presence, and then we want to slowly build out his dark alliance and again, it would be great if we could take people and creatures from Flash and Arrow."

It will be interesting to see what part of the timeline Legends of Tomorrow will pluck Darhk from, and how it might tie into the other Arrowverse shows. Considering the supernatural abilities Darhk developed, this would be a fun way to bring back Constantine, after his all-too-brief brief interaction with Oliver on Arrow. Darhk won't be the only foe the Waverider crew faces in season 3, however, as Klemmer explained:

"We saw the Kuasa, characters that have a personal impact on our guys. That Amaya thought she had this destiny to fulfill, this season she'll learn that her destiny wasn't just pure, 'I will have a granddaughter who will become Vixen.' The idea is always mixed. And the idea that her lineage will also, that there will be a line of evil through her family."

"You want bad guys who have enriched our characters' story personally, as opposed to just two-dimensional 'I'm a bad guy who wants to rule the world.' Our show is frothy, and it's always personal."

Nate and Amaya date on the Legends of Tomorrow

This sounds similar to the plans for the next big Arrowverse crossover, which EP Marc Guggenheim also described as more personal and with higher "emotional stakes." Much like it's difficult to top an alien invasion, it would be tough for Legends to surpass destroying the fabric of reality, so it makes sense to bring the good vs. evil fight down to a more intimate level.

Amaya (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) has already been struggling with knowing her future and that it isn't with Nate (Nick Zano), so things will definitely get more intense when she has to face her "evil" granddaughter Kuasa (Tracy Ifeachor), sister to the modern-day Vixen (Megalyn Echikunwoke). It remains to be seen which team members will be personally affected by Darhk, though it may tie in with Captain Cold's return.

The first season of Legends of Tomorrow received some criticism for the portrayal of villain Vandal Savage (Casper Crump), who was more of the undesirable cardboard villain Klemmer referenced. It can only be a good thing for the show if they give us villains with more interesting backstories, motivations, and interactions with our heroes.