The CW has finally ended the suspense by dropping the axe on DC's Legends of Tomorrow after seven seasons. You can read more details in "'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' Canceled at the CW" at Variety.com, but what this means for Booster boosters is that we are unlikely to be seeing Donald Faison reprise as Booster Gold.

(Could he show up in The Flash? Or could WB decide to continue the Legends story on HBO Max at a later date? Who knows. Television executives are unstable people; they could do *anything*. The point here is that there won't be an eighth season on CW this fall.)

This marks the second time that Booster Gold has appeared in a live-action television show, and the second time that the show has ended shortly thereafter. Eleven years ago, Booster had a guest starring appearance in "Booster," the 18th of 22 episodes in the 10th and final season of CW's Smallville. The biggest difference between the two situations is that it had been announced a year in advance that the tenth season would be Smallville's last, giving the series the opportunity to build to a fitting finale. No such luck for Legends, which will end with all of its characters in jail for crimes against history. (Anyone else having Seinfled flashbacks?)

It's starting to look like Booster Gold is becoming the Pariah of the live-action DC Universe: doomed to arrive in a new Earth just as is it consumed by the great darkness. Frankly, since each television series is a derivation of the one, true DC continuity now known as Earth-0, maybe it's fitting that secret Time Master Booster Gold arrives in the nick of time to prune these alternate Earths.

It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. Gotta make room for new shows somehow.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: cancellation cw donald faison legends of tomorrow television variety.com

If you're a regular reader of this blog, that means you're a Booster Gold fan and probably already aware of Russ Burlingame's online "Gold Exchange" columns recently collected into a book (now available on Amazon.com).

Well, considering that Booster Gold made his Arrowverse television debut last month, Burlingame has decided that the time is ripe for another book, this one specifically for CW fans who don't yet know much about The Greatest Hero They'd Never Previously Heard Of.

From Burlingame's announcement at getrevue.com

By coincidence, just days after The Gold Exchange paperback became a reality, The CW revealed that Donald Faison was set to play a new time-traveling hero on DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and the description...well, it sounded a lot like Booster.

I quickly realized that fans of the show would want to know more about the character — after all, this was the first major DC character added to the series in years, and in that time, the show had taken on a wildly different personality of its own.

So tonight, as the world gets to see Booster Gold come to live-action for only the second time on TV, I'm announcing A Legend in His Own Time: The Fast-Forward Guide to the Greatest Hero You've Never Heard Of. Available as a paperback and ebook in July, A Legend In His Own Time is a condensed and annotated version of The Gold Exchange, trimming much of what the TV audience would consider the fat and providing some additional context for Booster and his history.

I've recruited Booster Gold superfan Kevin Allen to help wrangle the 600 or so pages of total Booster content I have down to something that can be quickly and inexpensively distributed, so fans can breeze through it before Legends hopefully returns in the fall.

Burlingame is already taking pre-orders for the book on JosieBook.com. Can any Booster Gold library really be complete without it?

P.S. — While we're on the subject of Burlingame's personal cottage industry of writing Booster Gold companions, we should also touch on the Gold Exchange special edition hardcover he announced last September. That book still hasn't shipped, but only for the very good reason that Russ has been waiting for Blue and Gold to end its 8-issue run so he can include interviews about it — and the reveal of the Black Beetle's identity — as well. I think we can all agree that's worth waiting for.

Comments (1) | Add a Comment | Tags: amazon.com blue and gold gold exchange josiebook.com kevin allen legends of tomorrow russ burlingame television

Now that Donald Faison is playing Booster Gold in the CW's "Arrowverse," there appears to be a groundswell of fan support for his Scrubs and Fake Doctors, Real Friends co-star Zach Braff to play Booster's best friend, Blue Beetle.

But would Braff even want to do it?

Thankfully for all Blue and Gold fandom, ScreenRant.com writer Nathan Graham-Lowery put the question to Braff directly.

ScreenRant: Now, what are the chances we can get you to re-team up and you can play Booster's best friend, the Blue Beetle, Ted Kord?

Zach Braff: That's what I heard. I heard rumors, and I know nothing about comic books, but when Donald got this part, my social media blew up with 'You got to play Ted Kord now'. Now I don't know who Ted Kord is. I'm sorry, comic book fans, but I would love to play Ted Kord. You can start the rumor. I'm down to play Ted Kord. I don't know anything about Ted Kord, but I'll do it.

That might sound crazy, but having no idea who your character is seems to be exactly what casting agents for the Arrowverse are looking for.

I look forward to seeing a Faison/Braff television reunion... should Legends of Tomorrow ever actually be renewed for an 8th season.

(According to TVLine.com, LoT is one of 12 current CW shows that have not yet been renewed or officially canceled yet. Apparently, the CW's parent companies [Paramount and WarnerMedia] are trying to sell the network, and conventional wisdom is that executives are waiting to see what their new parents have in mind before making any more commitments. I guess we'll see what we see whenever we see it.)

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: donald faison legends of tomorrow nathan graham-lowery screenrant.com television zach braff

Whether or not I'm a fan of CW's programming, I have to admit that Donald Faison's portrayal of Booster Gold on DC's Legends of Tomorrow season 7 finale has certainly raised the profile of the character and introduced him to a whole bunch of people who have never actually set their hands on a DC comic. That's an objectively good thing.

So it is a worthwhile experience to read how the show's executive producer Phil Klemmer finally got around to adding Booster to his long-running show.

Here he speaks to Chancellor Agard for ew.com:

EW: Arrowverse boss Greg Berlanti has reportedly been working on a Booster Gold movie for years. How did the character wind up on Legends?

Klemmer: As you might expect, through the side door you'd least expect it [to]. I just remember [co-showrunner Keto Shimizu] and I were on a call with Kim Roberto at DC, and we were just talking about fun characters. I think somebody threw it out there, of course never [imagining] in a million years would we get Booster Gold. And then it felt like 15 minutes later, DC called us back and was just like, "Hey, Booster's yours." And just you have a moment of being like, "Okay, this is clearly a prank of some sort, because..." We were all giddy and in disbelief and then it just became a quest of finding an actor who was worthy of the character.

EW: Why was Booster Gold on your mind to begin with? Were you just looking for a DC character to bring in at the end of the season? How did Booster end up fitting the needs of the story?

Klemmer: It's always the tonal fit and just knowing, I don't know, there's just something so lovable and unexpected. You just knew that he was going to work as kind of a bit of the merry prankster, a bit of a BS artist.

Klemmer was also quizzed by Joshua Lapin-Bertone at DCComics.com:

DC: How familiar were you with Booster before this?

Klemmer: I just knew about him from the early days of Legends, when I would hear of various projects, whether they were TV shows or movies, in the same halls where I was working. And obviously dealing with Rip Hunter in early seasons as well. I just assumed that he was going to have his own project. I never imagined that he would come into our world.

DC: For building this version of Booster, did you draw upon any particular stories? Or did you build him from the ground up?

Klemmer: The creation of a character really takes place over the course of that first season, and then seasons to come. It's going to really be a correspondence between us as writers and Donald as a performer. We definitely wanted someone who is a little off center, and like, a little bit mischievous. But we also just wanted a charisma bomb.

And we round out our media tour with Klemmer's conversation with Damian Holbrook of TVInsider.com:

TV: Is the plan to keep Donald on the board?

Klemmer: For sure. We're not gonna let Booster get away. I'm really excited to write him—he's the kind of character you wish you could be. You could get away with murder and be so charming that you never really have to suffer the consequences. He's the antithesis of a writer. Writers are deeply neurotic and self-loathing self-doubting, etcetera. I think that's why we writers are drawn to those characters—because those are our secret alter egos.

Season 8 has not yet been announced. Will there be another season of Legends of Tomorrow? If I were a betting man, I'd bet yes (especially if Michael "Booster" Carter is on the field). Legends of Tomorrow is one of the few CW shows that has improved its ratings season-over-season, so I think we should prepare to see more of Klemmer and Faison's Gold come fall.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: chancellor agard damian holbrook dccomics.com donald faison ew.com greg berlanti interviews joshua lapin-bertone legends of tomorrow phil klemmer tvinsider.com

According to my television guide, the season seven finale of DC's Legends of Tomorrow debuts tonight at 8PM Eastern.

You may recall that this is the episode that will introduce Donald Faison's mystery character who very well might be the Berlanti Arrowverse's version of Booster Gold. Or, at least some version of him, as Legends of Tomorrow leans heavily into the DC Multiverse.

Anyway, tonight's the night, Booster boosters. So tune in and see what you think. You know I will.

"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" is the second best Simpsons episode ever. Fight me.

UPDATE: Yep, Donald Faison is Booster Gold, all right. If the show is renewed for a season 8, it sure looks like we'll be getting more.

Side note: The episode is *not* designed for viewers who are not already intimitely familiar with the series. So if you're watching DC Legends of Tomorrow for the first time — or in my case, the second time in 7 years — may God have mercy on your soul.

Second side note: If you're looking for my opinion, I didn't hate it. I didn't love it, either, but, hey, I'm more of a Comic Book Guy anyway. Faison certainly had the right energy, I'll give him that, and I won't be bothered at all if they bring him back for more episodes. I might even be persuaded to watch them.

Comments (5) | Add a Comment | Tags: donald faison legends of tomorrow rumors television