When DC's Legends of Tomorrow first premiered, few expected it to last due to its rather rocky start. But now, as its 6th season comes into stride, this zany time-traveling superhero tale has established itself as what many consider to be the best series in the CW's "Arrowverse" collection of DC shows. How did it get that way? Well one answer most probably wouldn't have given a couple years ago is "Gary." But now, things have very much changed for the nerdy former Time Bureau agent.
Spoilers for season 6 of Legends of Tomorrow follow.
Adam Tsekhman, the star behind the increasingly enigmatic lovable dork known as Gary Green (a name which makes more sense with each passing day), recently spoke about his role and how things have changed since he first came on to the show. At the beginning, Gary was actually meant to simply be a guest star, but something about his performance apparently caught the eye of the audience and showrunners enough to slowly crank up his appearances. In that way, he's similar to Jaleel White's unfortunately welcomed Steve Urkel on Family Matters, though Tsekhman likely had a warmer reception from his co-stars.
"At the time it was a guest star that was written in three episodes, kind of a bumbling, nerdy government agent," Tsekhman said in an interview with Collider, "and they really didn't know why he's working at the Time Bureau." Interestingly enough, even as a guest spot, Gary was given a surprisingly deep backstory, teasing many questions about how a bumbling doofus like him managed to join the same ranks as elite agents like Jes Macallan's Ava Sharpe (now co-captain of the titular Legends and fiancée of fellow leader and one of the team's most powerful members Sara Lance). But even with that much preparation, when Tsekhman first started the show, he had no idea his character would turn out to be an undercover alien this whole time, though he now sees some connections there.
"It did become that there were a lot of things that Gary did in earlier seasons that are like, 'Yeah, how does an adult male not know that?'" Tsekhman pondered after being told about his character's big twist. Since Gary was only intended as a short guest role at the beginning, it's rather clear that the alien reveal was a more recent conception. But luckily, as Tsekhman endeared himself enough to slowly gain more and more of a presence on the show, his character was developed in such a way that even if he wasn't an alien, he'd still be a pretty unusual person overall.
In fact, retroactively turning Gary into an alien may be one of the best things that could happen to the character. That's not to say he wasn't enjoyable before, but this new dimension to him offers some huge potential for more creative developments as the series continues. As of the latest episode, "Meat: the Legends," he's an undercover alien from a savage planet who was sent to study Sara but ended up becoming a big fan of humans and even carries around collectible trading cards of famous feminist figures. That's gold.
There are plenty more opportunities for more wacky stories as Legends of Tomorrow continues. Many are probably excited to see Sara and Ava finally tie the knot (hopefully in a beautiful winter wedding), and Gary still has some unfinished business with his own ex-fiancée, the horrifying human-eating alien Kayla. Oh yeah, and there's also the whole "aliens scattered throughout history" story. That sounds like a whole thing.
Source: Collider