Although their plan is to only be “gone” for a hot second, the heroes and villains who form DC’s Legends of Tomorrow will be missing in action from Arrow and The Flash for the foreseeable future.

Thus far, both Firestorm (comprised of Professor Stein and “Jax” Jackson, who are off learning to be a team) and Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl (who kissed Cisco goodbye to explore a future with longtime lover Carter Hall/Hawkman) have already been written off of The Flash, so their absences are accounted for. And in the Legends premiere, Arrow‘s Oliver and Laurel are respectively apprised of Ray and Sara’s far-out new lot in life.

But Team Flash theoretically should notice that the criminal coupling of Captain Cold and Heat Wave has hit a cold spell, or get to wondering what’s taking Firestorm 2.0 so long to get its act together.

Executive producer Greg Berlanti acknowledges that — as one character even notes in the Legends pilot — “If it all goes as planned,” after the unlikely allies are done helping time traveler Rip Hunter find and vanquish Vandal Savage, they will be returned to the precise time they left, and thus won’t ever go “missing.” But you know what they say about best laid plans, God laughing and such.

“They’re supposed to be coming back to when they left, but obviously that ain’t gonna happen!” Berlanti tells TVLine with a laugh. (After all, to do so would be to spoil who eventually survives the hunt for Savage.)

But neither will any conspicuous-ish absences be noticed or mentioned on-screen, on either Arrow or The Flash. Says Berlanti, “We haven’t done it as of yet,” at least through the 18th episode of each series’ current season.

That Legends debuts at midseason (specifically, this Thursday, Jan. 21 at 8/7c) makes smoothing over the eight characters’ absences a smidgen easier.

“Were all the shows to have started at the same time [in the fall], that would be something we spend a lot of brainpower thinking about — like, how and when might we figure out ways to intersect some of these characters,” Berlanti says. “But they’re off on their mission, [away] from the timeline as our [Arrow/Flash] characters are experiencing it right now.”

Which of the eight Legends will you most miss from their “origin” series?