Executive producer Marc Guggenheim hints that that Tuesday’s Halloween episode is ‘very ‘Stranger Things.’’
Ray Palmer befriending a younger version of himself? Stranger things have happened on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow!
On Tuesday’s Halloween episode, the Legends head back to 1980s Ivy Town when they see a headline announcing that elementary-aged Ray has been found dead after going missing on Halloween. Problem is, present-day Ray (Brandon Routh) is alive and well on the Waverider. Anachronism alert!
“We’re basically doing an episode that’s a send-up of the Amblin films of the ‘80s,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim teased to reporters last week. “It’s very Stranger Things. It’s a story where Ray Palmer, as a young boy, befriends an alien -- kind of like Elliott in E.T. -- the twist being that the alien he befriends is a baby Dominator.”
The Dominators, fans will remember, are the alien race who threatened Earth in last year’s four-show DC crossover event, requiring the powers of The CW’s entire cast of heroes -- from Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow and Legends -- to send them back into deep space.
“Chaos ensues,” Guggenheim added of this new -- or old, depending on how you look at it -- Dominator threat. “There’s a dance number, a Billy Joel album is used as a weapon…"
“...someone tries to have sex with a space alien,” EP Phil Klemmer chimed in. “And it’s on Halloween, which is perfect.”
As it turns out, 1988 Ray’s friendship with the young alien has put him in mortal danger -- both from the government and the creature’s protective mother -- unless the team can step in and save the day.
“It’s a really -- it’s a crazy episode,” Guggenheim said of the ep, appropriately titled “Phone Home.” “I want to say it’s one of the best of the first eight.”
After last week’s episode -- in which the Legends decided to go rogue after traveling to a dystopian 2042 and adding fugitive hacker Zari Tomaz (Tala Ashe) to their crew -- the team is on the run from the buttoned-up officials at the Time Bureau. But will their old boss, Bureau founder Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), ever return to the Waverider for another adventure?
“He can’t resist,” Klemmer said of the Legends’ “unlikely ally” returning to the fray. “Yes, he knows that the Time Bureau would probably be better off dealing with all these anachronisms, but by the time we get to [episode] 305, he’s kind of champing at the bit for a little fun. He’s feeling nostalgic for some of the old chaos.”
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.