‘Legends of Tomorrow’ Season 6: An Alien Invasion, ‘Gory’ Kills & Possible #Avalance Wedding

We are not afraid to say that DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is a perfect show. Exciting, funny AF, willing to be weird and clearly invested in simply entertaining folks, the P.T. Barnum of the Arrowverse has spent its run bending the rules over and giving them a good slap. Last season even ended with leader Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) being abducted by aliens.

Now, with Season 6 set to send our team into battle against an array of problematic ETs—the twist-filled opening episode finds the gang inadvertently unleashing a horde of space horrors on mankind—showrunner Phil Klemmer is ready to reveal a few things we might see beyond all of the madness already featured in the retro-fabulous trailer. So, buckle up…

I know you guys just started filming the season finale. How crazy is it that you’re already filming that just as the season premieres?

Yeah, we start Monday. I cannot believe we made it this far without any catastrophic disruptions.

The first episode is so much fun. Even the opening credits…

[Laughs] Yeah, we got a little theremin [effects] in there for the whole retro kind of “alien” feel. There’ve been so many different versions of aliens, we definitely wanted to lean into the kind of campier, cheesier ones that I grew up with.

Your alien design is really great in this episode, because it allows you to do a lot of homages to classic aliens.

The one that follows, I can’t wait for you to see it. The [second] episode was directed by Rachel Talalay, who was a disciple of John Waters, so it definitely has a lot of that weird, “mid-century, all-American kind of sinister beneath the normality” kind of vibe to it. And we’ve got a lot of gross-out humor, which I’m really a fan of.

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You have some gross-out stuff in this first one. I mean, just the smoothie and the way that a specific figure in history meets his demise.

[Laughs] Oh yes. And we dispatch some of these aliens in really grotesque, gory, unpleasant ways. You know, we spent that whole season rehabilitating monsters and finding their redeeming qualities, so we were just like, “We’ve gotta have bad guys that are just bad guys for once on the show.”

Will we see other breeds of aliens?

Oh my God, yeah. Virtually every episode. We have aliens who are mechanized, we have aliens who are sort of cute and cuddly, kind of animatronic, Baby Yoda creatures, we have giant CGI freak-out extravaganzas, yeah, we have monster-movie stuff. Obviously, we have a very short attention span on our show. It’s just…

Like, “Look at this! Look at this! Look at this!”

Yeah, “Look at this, do it all!” [Laughs] We also have a trio of guest spots from Jes Macallan‘s fiance Nic Bishop; he plays three completely different villains in three separate episodes.

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Speaking of Jes, you also hinge the team’s new mission not just on the release of all these aliens, but also on an emotional point: Ava is leading the group because she wants to get her Sara back. Can we maybe expect to see a Legends wedding?

If there were to be a wedding, it would certainly be… I’d have to put “Legends” in quotation marks. It would be an unconventional one if we ever tread those waters. There have been a lot of very romantic weddings in the Arrowverse and so, when that day comes, we will certainly put our own spin on it. But I mean, it’s not really a spoiler. I think I’ve said for years now, we’re never going to break Sara and Ava up. But yeah, they have to deal with some real s**t this year. And I mean, wedding planning is…

Is difficult!

Yeah, it’s worse than aliens!

Let’s talk about Esperanza “Spooner” Cruz, who’s this great new character played by Lisseth Chavez. When we spoke after last season, it sounded like she was a conspiracy theorist type of character. Now we find that she is the conspiracy theory.

Right. And we got so damn lucky with Lisseth. She is the only person I’ve ever cast as a lead without ever seeing them in person. But she just clicked the second we saw her and we’ve really written to her backstory as a huge sort of centerpiece to the season. It’s about her trying to understand this sort of separation from her mother, the origin of her powers, her relationship to these powers, just questioning her own kind of identity. Because—in Legends fashion—she’s pretty mixed up. That she’s kind of a recluse and not used to having to be around people, I mean, to throw her onto the Waverider is certainly a trial by fire.

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At a very interesting time on the Waverider, because you now have John (Matt Ryan) and Zari (Tala Ashe) kind of splashing around in the romance pool as well.

Yeah. And they both sort of go into it, knowing that it’s, you know…

A terrible idea?

[Laughs] So often, his lovers end up dead or condemned to hell, and her ex-lovers are more about money and a bunch of disastrous reality stunts. So yeah, of course they find each other irresistible!

And what are we going to see with Nate (Nick Zano)? Because he’s still kind of nursing a broken heart.

Oh yeah. Well, he’s working on a bit of a totem-based conjugal sort of visitation privilege. So I wouldn’t be too surprised if we get another sort of reappearance from the O.G. Zari in Season 6.

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Don’t think people won’t catch the line, “Being an avenger is stupid.”

Yeah, I know! Let’s just offend the most lucrative heroes in film history. Legends has every right to do so. [Laughs]

How long would you tell people to expect Sara to be separated from these people? Because Supergirl‘s doing the same thing and people are getting upset.

I don’t want to get people upset! Look, it’s going to seem like medicine, once you swallow it, it’s going to be delicious. Like, whatever the best flavor of Robitussin is. Sara and Ava, they’re spiritually linked. Even when they’re not sharing the same frame of film, we feel their connection. We put out a trailer that is not going to take people long to freeze frame and realize that there’s two people kissing in it. But you know, the way that you get to that satisfaction, I think, is really well earned. I had doubts about it until I saw the whole season and so I hope people agree!

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Season 6 Premiere, Sunday, May 2, 8/7c, The CW