Turns out Legends of Tomorrow's Booster Gold surprise was a hail mary swing to save the show

Legends of Tomorrow fans are still reeling from the news of The CW show’s cancellation, especially after the introduction of a major DC character, Booster Gold (Donald Faison), in the show’s Season 7 finale (which, sadly, ultimately stands as Legends' series finale). 

But now we've learned one of the main reasons for adding Booster Gold was an attempt to save the show. Co-showrunner Keto Shimizu explained on Twitter that it was the creative team’s hope that adding such a major character from the comics would bring more eyeballs to the series, and that DC and Warner Bros. obliged because they wanted Legends to continue. 

“DC was in our corner trying to help our chances of renewal,” Shimizu wrote in response to someone implying DC knew the show would get canceled. “They and WB wanted us to survive. We were asked for a new character to ‘excite’ the audience, and attract more viewers. We requested Booster and DC agreed. It was all in an attempt to save the show.”

The finale episode found the team crossing paths with a mysterious time traveler played by Faison, who turns out to be the Arrowverse's version DC heavy Booster Gold. They stay at odds for a bit, but eventually find a nice balance, and Faison's addition was intended to be just a first appearance with hopes for the character to return and join the cast in an eighth season. The episode ended with Booster and the Legends arrested by a mysterious group tasked with keeping the timeline sacred. You know, the job the Legends thought they were doing.

Sadly, Booster wasn’t enough to prevent The CW from canceling DC's Legends of Tomorrow, as well as its fellow Arrowerse show, Batwoman. The shows’ demise likely stemmed from ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia looking to sell The CW, and as such wanting to slim down the network’s slate (especially long-running shows that were poised to only get more expensive).

While Legends in its current form is over, there’s still hope that some of the series’ storylines can get wrapped on the Arrowverse shows that survived. The Flash is expected to return for a ninth season, so hopefully all these orphaned shows can find some closure at some point.

While we hope and wait, however, you can check out some other scintillating sci-fi TV on Peacock, such as SYFY hit Resident Alien, and originals like Brave New World and Intergalactic.