Sky1 has closed a deal with Warner Bros International Television Distribution to acquire the exclusive first run UK broadcast rights to The CW’s Arrow and The Flash spin-off DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, TVWise has learned. The show’s first season will premiere on Sky1 in 2016.
In DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, which is a spin-off of both Arrow and The Flash, time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter, having seen the future, one he will desperately try to prevent from happening, is tasked with assembling a disparate group of both heroes and villains to confront an unstoppable threat — one in which not only is the planet at stake, but all of time itself. Can this ragtag team defeat an immortal threat unlike anything they have ever known?
From Greg Berlanti and Warner Bros Television, DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow stars Victor Garber (Alias), Brandon Routh (Arrow), Arthur Darvill (Doctor Who), Caity Lotz (Arrow), Ciarra Renee (Pippin), Franz Drameh (Edge of Tomorrow), Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) and Wentworth Miller (The Flash). The executive producers are Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim.
DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow has long been expected to land at Sky1, given the channel is already the exclusive home to fellow DC dramas Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl. TVWise first reported back in July that Sky1 was in talks with WBITD to acquire DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow. Then, last month, sources at Sky told TVWise that they were looking to acquire the series as part of a concerted plan to make Sky1 the “UK home of DC Comics’ TV output”, in much the same way that Sky Atlantic is the UK home to HBO content.
“Hot on the heels of the amazing success of Supergirl, I’m really pleased to announce that another exciting comic-book drama is coming to the channel”, said Sky1 Director Adam MacDonald. “From the team behind our three best-loved superhero shows and with a great high-profile cast, there’s real pedigree behind DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. And it’s set in the same world as The Flash and Arrow, too, so it couldn’t be more suited to Sky 1. Our customers are going to love it.”
Sky has been particularly aggressive over the past few months when it comes to to U.S. acquisitions, thanks in no small part to Sky Living’s re-commitment to U.S. dramas. Since the LA Screenings in May, Sky1 has acquired such series as the James Patterson adaptation Zoo, ABC’s new take on The Muppets and CBS’ DC Comics drama Supergirl; while Sky Living has acquired CBS’ Limitless, ABC’s The Catch and NBC’s Blindspot. Sky Atlantic is also in talks on a number of high-end cable dramas.
