The Greg Berlanti-produced DC television universe is about to take a new approach to its characters, spearheaded by Wentworth Miller in his role as Captain Cold. Having first breathed life into the supervillain in the series The Flash, Miller continued his portrayal as part of the regular cast of the newer show, DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow. A shake-up was required, however, and the status of Miller’s character will change to being a ‘universe regular,’ no longer tethered to a specific show.
DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow is a real comic book team-up show, with the character of Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) having seen the future and realizing that heroes alone will not be able to prevent the catastrophic events he has seen. He works to assemble a team of legends – heroic and villainous – to save the planet, and time itself. Also featuring as regular cast members are The Atom (Brandon Routh), White Canary (Caity Lotz), Firestorm (Franz Drameh), Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee), Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell), Dr Martin Stein (Victor Garber), and Vandal Savage (Casper Crump).
Taking the step of unbinding Miller’s Captain Cold from DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, and signing the actor to a contract that covers multiple shows simultaneously is both groundbreaking and also a way of facilitating the development of this DC television universe into a creative endeavour more akin to the comic books – in which characters often move between titles – as Greg Berlanti explained to Deadline.
“We always knew that he wouldn’t be a permanent member of The Waverider. We also knew we loved him on the show and all the shows, Flash as well. What it really emulates to us is the comic books themselves where there really are a cast of characters. [Miller] won’t be part of the team of Legends on board of The Waverider next year, [but] he will have a very active role on the show. [His is] the first contract not applicable to just one show. In success, we hope to continue with other characters finding their way across all the shows.”
This is a grand plan indeed, and demonstrates a level of responsiveness and flexibility on the part of Berlanti and his team that will hopefully lead to innovative storytelling for DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, and the rest of the DC television universe that they oversee.
