"Legends of Tomorrow" losing two regulars

From Dateline: "'DC's Legends of Tomorrow': Brandon Routh & Courtney Ford to Depart CW Drama As Series Regulars in Season 5"

This wasn't their call[ it is, as they say, a storyline-dictated decision.

Too bad. I've felt increasingly iffy about the show, and part of it is the constant cast turnover. This leaves the show with only two original cast members, and I don't like all of the replacements (he said, looking at Mona).

And I liked this version of Ray Palmer. Leading-man handsome, but also earnest, brave, geeky, and hands down the sunniest guy on the team. 

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  • Interesting that they are married in real life.

  • It seems to follow a pattern on the show that I don't know to be deliberate, but appears to my eye. And that is the elimination of super-powered characters -- or at least ones requiring F/X. Firestorm, the Hawks, Steel, Vixen, now Atom, all gone. And even when the super-powers exist -- as is the case with The Atom -- they are almost never used. I can't remember the last time I saw Ray's Iron Man Atom suit. 

    Meanwhile, what we're left with is punchy types, or those whose powers are activated by hand-waving. 

  • I’ll be sorry to see them go, Ray particularly. He brought a lot of life and heart to the show, and I particularly liked his bromance with Nate. I don’t know if the SFX effects budget is that much of a consideration. New character Mona is also full of practical makeup and transformation effects, for instance. And their adversaries are almost always using SFX. And who knows who they’ll bring on once Ray and Nora step away?

    I think the concentration on the physical fighting is a matter of a lot of the audience wanting that sort of thing -- and that “real” stage combat still comes off as more real and consequential than people pointing their fingers at things and concentrating, no matter how good the effects are when they do it.

    Anyway, we’ve got a Crisis coming mid-season -- I think we should expect a bit of cast-shuffling as a result.

  • First I'm hearing about this new cast change. On one hand, it's sad to see favorites go, but the writing has managed to work around this most of the time, so far.

    From what I have heard...

    The CW/Arrow-verse version of the Crisis on Infinite Earths is supposed to be the "big" event of the season, split between the 2019 Winter finales and the 2020 Spring premieres.

    Routh is playing the Kingdom Come-Earth Superman as well as Ray Palmer. The Legends will be participating in the Crisis, but their new season isn't scheduled to premiere until 2020.

    Arrow's final season is only 10 episodes long, but whether the last episode will be before, during, or after the Crisis remains to be seen.

    Like Rob said, makes you wonder what else might happen before the end of the event.

  • I'm not sure where, but I know that I saw the TV Supergirl and Flash almost dying when they racing around the world. This, of course, reminds me of the two most prominent casualties in the original Crisis of Infinite Earths. It sounds like the CW version will sacrifice Green Arrow.

  • I'm a bit behind in watching Legends of Tomorrow; I just watched the last three episodes today, out of order.

    So I watched the episode with Ray's departure from the team before the episode with the rationale for why he left: He got married to Nora Darkh, who is a Fairy Godmother. Parting words from new father-in-law Damien Darkh*: She can't do the job if she's stuck on "this silly ship," so you, new son-in-law, need to let her be free to go do it.

    That's why they wrote Ray out? 

    I've always been iffy about Legends of Tomorrow, and their shedding Ray Palmer cuts my interest in watching by half. 

    *He was dead, but he got better.

  • ScreenRant didn't like Ray's and Nora's departure from Legends of Tomorrow any more than I did: "Ray and Nora's Legends of Tomorrow Exit Was Terrible"

  • Ooof. I'm sorry they're leaving on a sour note... but I'm glad they can come back for guest appearances. I'm a couple episodes behind, so I'm only skimming here for now. I love those characters -- especially Ray -- and I'm gonna miss them. I wonder if they'll be replaced by another regular?

  • Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:

    Ooof. I'm sorry they're leaving on a sour note... but I'm glad they can come back for guest appearances. I'm a couple episodes behind, so I'm only skimming here for now. I love those characters -- especially Ray -- and I'm gonna miss them. I wonder if they'll be replaced by another regular?

    They already have. In the post-Crisis premiere*, we saw that among the changes, Zara's future was wiped away and her brother Behrad took her place. But in a subsequent episode, Zara returned, but with a new persona -- as a celebrity blogger/social influencer. Nate's still hot for her, but she doesn't know or remember anything about him from before.

    They also totally did away with the Time Bureau nonsense; Congress cut the budget for the agency, and Nate rejoined and Ava joined the Legends crew. And, fortunately, they also got rid of that ever-annoying Mona. 

    I suppose with Ray gone, Nate and Behrad will be best buds.

    * I never thought I'd be saying that about a TV show! 

  • The only thing Brandon Routh has said on the subject since the news first broke is that the departure wasn't his or her (Courtney Ford's) idea.

    He hasn't ruled out guest appearances, but it does make you wonder what the CW has planned for the future.

    Presumably Batwoman, Supergirl, Flash, Black Lightning, and Legends will all return this coming fall, but only the first three get full seasons/22 episodes. The rest are shorter.

    Arrow has ended. No word on whether Green Arrow and the Canaries has been picked up as I write this.

    A new post-TV Crisis Superman (with the Lois and Clark from Supergirl) is supposed to be in production (episode length unknown) and Stargirl hasn't even debuted yet, although her actual standing beyond sharing at least the premiere between the CW and DC Streaming remains unclear to me.

    Of course, who knows if COVID-19 has stopped production on any of these for the moment?

    Can anyone share more details beyond what I've posted above?

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