With its constant traveling to different time periods, altering historical events, and even sometimes fighting a massive furry blue toy named Beebo, Legends of Tomorrow has consistently proven itself to be the strangest and often times most entertaining corner of The CW’s Arrow-verse. However, at the end of the day, it’s a story about a makeshift family and in mere episodes, that family will be losing two of its primary figures.
It was revealed last August that Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford would be leaving the series–and their characters Ray Palmer and Darhk–behind this season. Now, with their final episode–episode 7, “Romeo v Juliet: Dawn of Justness”–mere weeks away, the show’s creative team is shedding some light on how and why the two mainstays will be saying their goodbyes.
“We’ve always imagined that time on the Waverider was meant to be finite, you know? It was always meant to be halfway home and not a permanent home and that once you’ve repaired whatever damage you had when you boarded the ship that you probably should make room for another damaged soul,” co-showrunner Phil Klemmer said during a group interview. “It’s like real life, as well. You know, you have your single friends but when you get into relationships–sorry to break the news to all the people in young relationships who think that life is never gonna change, but it does. There’s no way of going through a threshold in life and carrying everything that you had before. You have to forfeit something. And that’s the pain and beauty of life.”
On the show, Ray and Nora have fallen in love. Based on the way Klemmer explains it, it seems perhaps they’ll be departing the show for their own personal happy ending. At the very least, it’ll be an emotional departure.
“We like to tell what are more realistic stories, which is that people come together for a time when they need each other and then when they don’t need each other anymore, they kind of grow apart,” co-showrunner Keto Shimizu elaborated. “And that is definitely the story we’re trying to tell with Ray and Nora. And we think it’s the way that we build up to their departure. I think it’s very loving. It comes from our love of these characters. And it comes from us wanting that story to come to the most satisfying close that we can, both for us as writers, for the actors, and for we hope the audience.”
Still, just because “Romeo v Juliet: Dawn of Justness” will see these two characters say their farewell, nothing is necessarily forever on Legends of Tomorrow. Caity Lotz, who plays Sarah Lance on the series, teased, “No one’s ever fully gone. That’s the magic of these shows, you know? It’s ever-evolving, ever-changing. I hope we get them back a bit. And maybe we do, even in this season.”
Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesdays on The CW.
