‘Legends of Tomorrow’ season 2: Ciara Renée confirmed to be out

During the finale of the CW’s DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s 4,000-year quest to kill the immortal Vandal Savage finally came to a successful end. Now it’s being confirmed that Ciara Renée, who was a series regular on Season 1, playing Kendra Saunders aka Hawkgirl, will not be returning for a second season. Moreover, fans can expect the same or only a brief appearance by Falk Hentschel, who played Hawkman in a recurring guest role.

Legends co-creator/executive producer Marc Guggenheim said that he and the series’ other writers did not know that Renée and Hentschel would not have a significant presence in Season 2 until they got together to think about next season.

“We went through the team, made a list of all the characters and started to think of stories for them. When we got to Hawkman and Hawkgirl, we had trouble coming up with stories. The bow was tied so tightly and neatly with their story in the finale, that everything we thought of felt very forced. After 4000 years, they were no longer under the specter of Vandal, and we felt they need some time off. Bringing them back to the team as soon as the the beginning of Season 2 felt premature.”

This is the second major cast change on Legends heading into Season 2, with news Wentworth Miller’s departure as a series regular coming earler. Miller is confirmed to become a regular in the combined Greg Berlanti universe, recurring on both Legends and The Flash next season.

Guggenheim has always been clear that Legends would have a rotating team of characters, saying that “We have a very organic system in place to take a break form characters.”

In Season 2, “the composition of the team is going to change; there will be some new faces on the Waverider,” he said. “The season finale planted some very significant flags in terms of what the new concept of the show will be in season 2.”

Legends already is recruiting two new team members for next season, so stay tuned.

“We always wanted Legends to be distinct season to season, not only in terms of the composition of the team but also in terms of mission statements. The team’s mission statement for Season 2 is more compelling than Season 1, and at the same time, it is more streamlined. It’s a little bit higher concept, a very clean notion that will allow the show to do things that it does best.”