‘Legends of Tomorrow’ Star Falk Hentschel on Hawkman’s History With Hawkgirl

“Legends of Tomorrow” brings together a disparate group of heroes and villains to form a reluctant team, but two members already have some complicated history between them.

Carter Hall (Falk Hentschel) and Kendra Saunders (Ciara Renee) are destined to be together – and destined to die at the hands of their greatest foe, Vandal Savage (Casper Crump).

As first introduced in the “Arrow”-“The Flash” crossovers, Carter and Kendra have had plenty of practice at dying and being reincarnated, but it’s going to take more than a few episodes to dig deep into their hundreds of years of history.

Luckily, “Legends” is all about time travel.

“Obviously, there’s time travel, there’s reincarnation, there’s flashbacks that Kendra is having,” Hentschel told TheWrap. “So I think there’s a lot of opportunity to get to know our past selves and all kinds of stuff.”

Below, Hentschel discusses how he and his co-star found the right chemistry for the complicated couple, where they go from here and the difference between filming “Legends” and the crossovers.

TheWrap: We got to know Carter and Kendra first in the “Arrow”-“Flash” crossovers, but where are they now?
Hentschel: They’re in the “training phase,” I would call it. They’re trying to help people, they’re being superheroes, but Kendra just hasn’t had her awakening yet. He’s sort of schooling her, in his way.

Will we learn more about their very long history together?
Obviously, there’s time travel, there’s reincarnation, there’s flashbacks that Kendra is having. So I think there’s a lot of opportunity to get to know our past selves, and all kinds of stuff.

Did you feel there was a marked difference in filming the crossovers to now filming the show itself?
Yes, because the crossovers were crazy. They were absolutely nuts, in the sense of the workload. We got whisked from the “Legends of Tomorrow” set to “Arrow” then to “Flash” and back. At some point, for me at least, you just go, “Just tell me where to stand and what to say and let me just focus on that scene,” because I just came from “Legends” and had to go back to “Legends” afterwards. It was just a whirlwind. I was amazed at how they pulled it off. There were so many of us, and Kendra and Carter were being used so much, so it was just an acting marathon.

So even though this show is crazy in and of itself with the time travel and all, it’s a more smooth process.
Yeah. Every show finds its groove, I would say. The first season is the season to figure out the dynamics, the workflow.

Carter and Kendra are such a unit. How did you and Ciara approach playing these characters and how did you find that chemistry between them?
It just came naturally. We started talking, at first via text or Twitter or something like that, and that’s when we discovered we already had a natural banter. That bickering you see on screen, we have that but in a positive way. We’re not scared to just be blunt with one another. We have a lot of fun working on these scenes together. We’re really aware of the fact that they’re – I think – the first-ever superhero couple, this dynamic duo, they’re a unit. So we really wanted to make sure we didn’t come from my own ego, but sort of bring it together and do what’s right, not only for the show, but this team.

“Legends of Tomorrow” airs Thursdays at 8/7c on the CW.