Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer
“Legends of Tomorrow” star Brandon Routh said that he is personally “happy” about Neal McDonough’s return for Season 3 of the CW series. The CW

“Legends of Tomorrow” star Brandon Routh thinks that his character Ray Palmer, aka The Atom, is not that frightened by Damien Darhk’s (Neal McDonugh) return in Season 3 of the CW series.

“Ray’s pretty optimistic. I think he feels like we dealt with him once, we can deal with him again,” Routh told ComicBook.com of what his character feels about Damien’s comeback to the show. “And as Brandon, I’m happy about it because Neal is awesome, and a joy to work with. He brings a lot of great, positive energy to the set, and he’s a fantastic actor.”

McDonough, who is returning to the show as a series regular in Season 3, appeared as Damien in nine episodes of Season 2. He was the first one to be recruited by Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher) to help him locate the pieces of the Spear of Destiny. But after successfully de-powering the Spear of Destiny and erasing Eobard from existence in the Season 2 finale, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) also wiped Damien’s memory and returned him to Miami 1984.

READ: “Mistresses” alum Jes Macallan joins “Legends of Tomorrow” Season 3

“I kind of feel like we could have put him in prison instead of just putting him back, but obviously for the timeline, he needed to live out his existence, which is why he was spared,” Routh said of why the Legends put Damien back to Miami 1984 at the end of the Season 2 finale.

As to why Damien was chosen as one of the villains for Season 3, executive producer Phil Klemmer told Cinema Blend that Damien’s personal connection to Sara — he killed her sister in “Arrow” Season 4 — made him a perfect baddie for the upcoming season. “[We] want bad guys who have enriched our characters’ story personally, as opposed to just two-dimensional ‘I'm a bad guy who wants to rule the world,” Klemmer explained. “Our show is frothy, and it’s always personal.”

Klemmer added that they have come up with a way for Damien to come back to the series.“You know he was kind of glib and a lighter version of himself last season. [So] we want to give him some real teeth and a real sort of sinister presence, and then we want to slowly build out his dark alliance,” the showrunner teased of the return of the former Legion of Doom member.

“Legends of Tomorrow” Season 3 premieres on Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 9 p.m. EDT on The CW.

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