Superheroes unite to save the world in The CW's 'Legends'

It's 2166 and immortal evil madman Vandal Savage is about to achieve his goal of the total annihilation of humanity. It's up to time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter to stop him.

In “DC's Legends of Tomorrow,” premiering Thursday, Jan. 21, on The CW, Time Master Hunter (Arthur Darville) travels 150 years into the past to assemble a team of rogues and heroes to stop the threat. They are: billionaire scientist Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) — aka the Atom — whose exo-suit can shrink him to minuscule size; trained assassin Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), otherwise known as the White Canary; Professor Martin Stein (Victor Garber) and Jefferson “Jax” Jackson (Franz Drameh), who together form the meta-human Firestorm; Leonard Snart and Mick Rory (played by former “Prison Break” co-stars Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell), known as Captain Cold and Heat Wave; and Kendra Saunders (Ciara Renee) and Carter Hall (Falk Hentschel) — aka Hawkgirl and Hawkman — many-times-reincarnated souls who can fly and have a spiritual connection to Savage (Danish actor Casper Crumb).

Together, the “Legends” travel back and forth through time to stop Savage and save the world. But killing Savage — who's immortal — is a tall order.

“There's a certain set of circumstances that have to be put in play in order for him to actually die ... so he's immortal with an asterisk,” explains Routh with a laugh.

“Basically, because he's been around so long he knows all the tricks of the trade of humanity, so he's very wily,” he continues. “And he can also kind of sense the one or two people who can actually kill him because in the lore of the comics they're all connected and he can sense that they're around, so it's hard to sneak up on him as well.”

Routh, who has experience playing superheroes through his 2006 turn as the Man of Steel and Clark Kent in “Superman Returns,” borrowed a little from that character to create Roy Palmer/The Atom.

“I think every superhero has a little bit of Superman in them, they just deny it a little bit,” Routh says. “For instance for Ray, Ray is not clumsy but he is very energetic and very excited and very passionate about what he does, so he comes off a little goofy because of his pure passion about his technology and about creating a suit and just even saving people, I would say. And that's what makes him create the Atom suit, is to help people and to protect them the way he couldn't protect important people in his life in the past.”