Photo : Phillip Chin ( Getty Images )

Brandon Routh couldn’t quite cut it as Superman, but he found success with another superhero, Ray “The Atom” Palmer (or, as we so affectionately call him, Poor Sweet Ray Ray), who appeared on The CW’s Arrow before going on to serve as one of the anchors for the network’s Legends Of Tomorrow, one of our favorite shows of last year. Routh’s real-life wife Courtney Ford joined him in season three of Legends, playing villain-turned-love-interest Nora Darhk. They’re both standouts on the DC series, but, alas, all good things must come to an end—the pair will be departing the series during its upcoming fifth season. Somebody tell Nate Heywood it’s going to be okay, or at least give him a Beebo to snuggle.

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Per Deadline, the decision is a creative one, as the writers felt their storyline, like many others before it on the ever-evolving series, had come to an end. While this is a big loss for the series, the door remains open for future guest appearances from the sweet, hyper-intelligent puppy dog and the morally reformed witch—that’s one of the perks of being able to travel in time and space.

“Of course, when we have had main characters in the past whose journeys take them away from the Waverider, it’s never truly goodbye,” said executive producers Phil Klemmer, Grianne Godfree and Keto Shimizu. “We love these characters and hope to check in with them in future seasons, to see how life off the ship has transformed them for better or worse.”


Routh is one of the last remaining members of that original cast of heroes—sorry, Legends—currently aboard the Waverider. He’ll be joining Victor Garber, Wentworth Miller, Franz Drameh, Ciara Renée, Arthur Darvill, Falk Hentschel, and the late-arriving Keiynan Lonsdale in time-travel retirement. After Routh’s departure, only Caity Lotz (Sara Lance/White Canary), Dominic Purcell (Mick Rory/Heat Wave), and Amy Louise Pemberton, who plays the ship’s navigation system Gideon, will remain from the season one ensemble.

Legends returns in January, but odds are we’ll see Routh again before that. As we previously reported, the actor will again don the cape as an alternate timeline Superman in the next Arrowverse crossover event with Tyler Hoechlin’s Man Of Steel, the first part of which airs in December.

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