From the time “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” first premiered, its producers were upfront about the fact that the crew of the Waverider – and therefore the cast of the show – would be constantly changing. Early in the show’s run that manifested itself with Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee) and Hawkman (Falk Hentschel) leaving after the first season, while Nate (Nick Zano) and Amaya (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) joined in the second. The time traveling crew’s original leader Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) left, returned, left again. And now in the third season, there is another addition to the team in Zari Tomaz (Tala Ashe), a Muslim-American hacker from the future.

“Since the beginning of the show we recognized that there was not a lot of estrogen on the bridge of the Waverider,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim says. “We really, really wanted to bring on another female character.”

Executive producer Phil Klemmer notes that it’s also just “fun” to have new characters on the show for those who are working on the show, as well as the audience. “It brings a real vitality to us in the room to figure out how this new person will affect the dynamics of the ship,” Klemmer explains.

According to Ashe, Zari – who comes from a future where she was hunted for both having powers and being Muslim – challenges the rest of the Legends with the way she views the world and what she thinks about time travel.

“I think philosophically she’s different than everyone else,” Ashe says. “I think her hacker brain sees a lot of potential in time traveling, not just in fixing anachronisms but possibly improving things. Having come from this dystopian, broken world of 2042 she has an almost humanitarian tilt to it which will clash with certain people on the Waverider.”

However, Zari will also find she has a connection with at least one member of the crew. After all, she and Amaya both possess totems.

“It’s still a bit of a mystery, but I know that the totems are what’s bringing them together and what links them to Kuasa [Tracy Ifeachor], who is also a totem-bearer,” Ashe says. “The connection between the totem-bearers does come to a larger part of the season at a certain point.”

“Legends of Tomorrow” airs on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on the CW.