Underdog Arrowverse series DC’s Legends of Tomorrow aired its 100th episode late last year, and it included plenty of familiar faces that used to be a part of the misfit group of heroes. Among them was Brandon Routh, who portrayed Ray Palmer a.k.a. The Atom in Arrow before shifting to the spin-off series. The actor left the show in Season 5, and although it wasn’t on good terms, he still returned for the 100th episode and he recently explained why.
Brandon Routh was a guest on Smallville alum Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast Inside of You, and during the conversation he discussed returning to the Arrowverse to partake in Legends of Tomorrow’s milestone episode. Routh’s exit wasn’t the greatest, and he opened up about why he and wife Courtney Ford wanted to return the Waverider:
Knowing, meanwhile, by fan reaction and all the love we’ve gotten over the last couple years, even though one person made this decision that was a bad decision... nobody supports that. Nobody has supported that decision. So that’s one of the reasons why we said 'yes' to come back. We knew that fans would appreciate it. And also we made sure that in coming back that we were standing our own worth and made our own requests to make sure that we felt like we were respected. And that happened this time around.
It’s been revealed before that Brandon Routh’s departure from Legends of Tomorrow was one that was not up to him. While he didn’t have the best experience when he left, he seemed pretty happy to come back.
Routh opened up about what it was like being back on set and working with his former co-stars, and it sounds like he made the right decision coming back:
We were happy to be part of it and to also get an opportunity to work with Wentworth [Miller], and Victor [Garber], and Falk [Hentschel], and Franz [Drameh] and some people who didn’t have as much opportunity to be in the Season 4 energy of Legends. Kind of more goofy, open, so it was fun to kind of play with them in that new sandbox that the show had become where it wasn’t that way as much when they started out.
Brandon Routh has opened up before how Courtney Ford's and his exit from Legends of Tomorrow was not handled very well. Their departures were somewhat complicated, as Routh did not want to leave the Arrowverse show. It’s nice that when given the opportunity to return, the actor was all for it.
Routh was quick to pick up a new role after Legends of Tomorrow. He had a short stint as a T.O. on The Rookie, portraying a very complicated officer with questionable reasoning. This year he will be lending his voice to new animated TV series Magic: The Gathering, based on the popular card game. Routh also returned to the Arrowverse once again to reprise Ray Palmer in The Flash’s big “Armageddon” event late last year.
It’s unknown whether or not Brandon Routh could return to the Arrowverse once again, since characters are known to make small appearances across shows – like David Ramsey’s John Diggle. Hopefully we’ll be seeing Ray Palmer once again soon.
