On Day 2 of PaleyFest at the Dolby Theatre featuring the superheroes behind the CW’s superhero franchises, Legends Of Tomorrow and Arrow EP Marc Guggenheim teased a surprise crossover in the penultimate episode of Legends’ fifth season. While not able to name upcoming episodes based on particular comics, Guggenheim nonetheless hinted at a sizable cameo to come. “I will call it a surprise crossover. No one knows this because we’ve kept it under wraps, but there’s a surprise cameo, surprise crossover moment in the penultimate episode of Legends,” he told Deadline.
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Guggenheim also said that Arrow‘s Katie Cassidy will make an appearance in the season finale of Legends, and referred to a sizable “easter egg” to come in the penultimate episode. “I will say there is an easter egg—it’s more than an easter egg, it’s a little bit more obvious than that … that I think fans are really going to love,” he said. “And not necessarily fans of comics, but let’s say fans of cartoons.”
While trying to “stick the landing” and wrap up loose ends with Legends, EP Phil Klemmer also hinted at a major upcoming appearance. “Very soon, the author of the greatest, I guess you could call it ‘fantasy novel series’ of all time will appear. You can figure out who that is,” he said.
Andrew Kreisberg, the executive producer of The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends, also got in his licks among the EPs spilling secrets: he confirmed a villain presence in The Flash that has been a long time coming. “We have Abra Kadabra coming up in an episode, played by David Dastmalchian. He’s a long time comic book villain of the Flash, and we finally got him onto the show, and we’re really excited about that,” Kreisberg said. “There’s a lot of fun stuff coming up, and a lot of comic book nods, but we tend not to specifically adapt a specific comic book, or specific comic book storyline.”
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A sorcerer to be reckoned with, Abra Kadabra uses his array of spells—the product of scientific technology from a future era—to achieve his ends, leading to something of a “moral conundrum” for Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen.
Moderating the CW’s Heroes and Aliens panel, director and comic book superfan Kevin Smith couldn’t be happier to be mingling with the stars and creatives behind the network’s DC comic-based series—among them Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow. “I’m so excited because this is the closest I’ll ever get to the Oscars stage in my life,” he joked.
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During the panel, Kreisberg also intimated plans for a four-series DC crossover in the near future, following an ambitious multi-series crossover this past season, with Stephen Amell also chiming in. “I was having dinner with [CW President] Mark Pedowitz—he comes up to Vancouver every year—and I go, ‘Mark, are we going to do a crossover every year?’ And he goes, ‘You’re f*cking right we are!’ ” the Arrow star said.
With Supergirl‘s Melissa Benoist discussing her presence at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. and her position as a role model for young women, Kreisberg also commented on his desire to integrate contemporary, real-world issues into the DNA of the show. “It was always sort of built in that the show could take on issues. When we were crafting this season, we were talking about a lot of what was going on in the world, in terms of immigration, in terms of journalism, in terms of LGBT rights, and we realized that this show— and this cast, more than anything else—could handle mixing that real world stuff into a superhero world,” the EP said. “I was as proud of the episodes that touched on that as anything I’ve done in my career.”
With Smith moderating, it’s no wonder that this afternoon’s presentation occasionally went off the rails, in amusing fashion. While Smith asked Legends‘ Brandon Routh if his suit includes a “dick door,” fan questions led to a massive selfie session for one fan onstage.
