Legends of Tomorrow's S7 Ending Risks The Worst DC Cliffhanger Ever
Warning: Spoilers for the Legends of Tomorrow season 7 finale.
Booster Gold’s reveal and the capturing of the Legends at the end of Legends of Tomorrow's season 7 finale might have been exciting, but the potential cancellation of the show risks making it one of the worst unresolved cliffhangers in DC history. After being announced by The CW through a very suggestive casting description, Scrubs star Donald Faison finally made his debut in the Legends of Tomorrow season 7 finale and confirmed the theories that Booster Gold would join the Arrowverse. His presence, however, may be short-lived.
While nothing has been confirmed regarding the renewal of Legends of Tomorrow, the odds are not as much in the show's favor as in recent years. By this same time in previous years, Legends of Tomorrow and other Arrowverse shows had already been confirmed as renewed or canceled. Even so, the Legends writers were optimistic, choosing not to tie up all the loose ends and even leaving viewers on a cliffhanger at the end of season 7.
The possibility that the most recent episode of Legends of Tomorrow is the last one in the show puts Booster Gold’s arrival and the arresting of the Legends in danger of never being paid off. If so, it would be incredibly disappointing. As a beloved DC character, Booster Gold was making his first live-action appearance since Smallville. His appearing in Legends of Tomorrow was a long-time fan wish and always felt like a no-brainer given the time-travel elements and the connection to former Legends' leader Rip Hunter that both the character and the show share. Booster Gold’s role in the show was also set up to be one full of surprises, as the character was orchestrating the arrests of the Legends for their time crimes. All of that makes a potential cancellation of Legends of Tomorrow right after Booster Gold's arrival even worse, setting up up to potentially be an unresolved cliffhanger of the worst sort.
The situation becomes even messier considering that Legends of Tomorrow only had the opportunity to use Booster Gold after Warner Bros. decided that the character would not be used in the DCEU. This means that for Booster Gold fans, Legends of Tomorrow is the only way to see a live-action version of the character that could be Arrowverse's most powerful time-traveler yet. If Legends of Tomorrow doesn't come back for season 8, Booster Gold will likely not show up in live-action for quite some time. There would also be no closure to what happened to the Legends, as the only sendoff that was really planned for this season of Legends of Tomorrow was Nate’s.
A cancellation of Legends of Tomorrow at this point would put season 7’s cliffhanger on pair with other infamous unresolved DC endings such as Young Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League series. The first had been canceled at the end of season 2 right after revealing Darkseid while the second left several loose ends about a possible invasion by Apokolips and the world succumbing to an evil Superman. Although Young Justice has been brought back and may still pay off Darkseid's reveal, Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League will likely never see a sequel. A cancellation of Legends at this point would make the show the first in the Arrowverse to say goodbye without having a proper ending.
The announcement of whether Legends of Tomorrow will be renewed has yet to be made, but canceling the show right now would create an incredibly frustrating unresolved cliffhanger. Not seeing a follow-up to Booster Gold's arrival would be a bummer for both fans of the character and viewers in general. The showrunners and producers behind the show seem to believe there's a chance for another season; hopefully, their optimism is proven correct.