Phil Klemmer Talks DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

Phil Klemmer who’s the DC’s Legends of Tomorrow showrunner, spoke with ComicBook.com this past July at San Diego Comic Con to talk a bit about his history when it comes to comic books and The CW mid-season television series DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

What is your background with comic books?

I was sort of kept away from a lot of popular media. I remember being really into the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman at a very sort of proto-psychosexual way, and then at a certain point my parents tried to brainwash me into thinking that television was evil.

There’s a story that at a certain point, somebody asked me about television and I said “Wonder Woman want your brains,” because I believed — I wasn’t Amish or anything like that — but I still believed that somehow…

So then I didn’t really watch television for the rest of my childhood. I read books and it was terrible. It wasn’t until I really was working in entertainment that I actually bought a television and started watching things, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

There are three major components: Vandal Savage, Who is Jay Jackson?, and what is Rip Hunter’s plan? Can you give us one new hint on any of those?

The thing with this show is, we have such an incredible ensemble that I almost don’t want to take away from the characters we’ve already cast. And I think as we go from episode to episode, we will become our own worst enemies. We will have characters who die. We’ll have characters who betray the team. We’ll have characters who are left behind in time. So there will be the mythological bad guy, but I think week to week, we will be focusing on the characters you already know because damn, we’ve got a great cast. To not use them to their fullest would be crazy.

Jay Jackson is a big mystery. What can you say about Jay Jackson?

I will say he’s probably the last person that Professor Stein wanted to share Firestorm with. I think for me it’s all about tension and interpersonal friction, so this isn’t the normal superhero story where everybody’s on the same team, pushing in the same direction; it’s really about us sort of turning on ourselves and whether we can learn to get along in order to save the world.

To read the full interview head over to ComicBook.com.