The first season of the American television series Legends of Tomorrow, which is based on characters from DC Comics, premiered on The CW on January 21, 2016, and ran for 16 episodes until May 19, 2016.

The season is produced by Berlanti Productions, Warner Bros. Television, and DC Entertainment, with Phil Klemmer and Chris Fedak serving as showrunners.

Arthur Darvill headlines the first season as Rip Hunter, with principal cast members Victor Garber, Brandon Routh, Caity Lotz, Franz Drameh, Ciara Renée, Falk Hentschel, Amy Pemberton, Dominic Purcell, and Wentworth Miller also starring.

In January 2015, co-creator Greg Berlanti stated that there were "very early" preliminary talks for an additional spin-off series centered on Ray Palmer / Atom (Brandon Routh), from Arrow and The Flash.

The potential series would be headlined by several recurring characters from both Arrow and The Flash, including Palmer, Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller), and Martin Stein (Victor Garber).

[51] Keiynan Lonsdale, who would eventually play Wally West / Kid Flash as a regular in the third season, had originally auditioned for this role.

[55] Later in the month, it was confirmed that Lotz would reprise her role as Sara Lance, who would be taking the name White Canary,[56] as well as revealing the antagonist as Vandal Savage.

[54] The series shot a presentation for the network's upfront showcase, which was filmed over the course of one night, and directed by Arrow and The Flash veteran Dermott Downs.

[65][66][67] Director/producer Glen Winter discussed in a January 2016 interview with Comic Book Resources the process of filming key elements of the series' pilot, The new facet for Legends was that there's no #1 [actor] on the call sheet.

[17] The series premiere was prefaced with a special airing on January 19, 2016, titled "DC's Legends of Tomorrow: Their Time Is Now".

Russ Burlingame from ComicBook.com praised it saying, "The series delivers a sharp, enjoyable pilot that's arguably the most attention-grabbing and entertaining from any of the current crop of superhero shows.

"[92] Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave the first part of the pilot episode a 7.7/10, praising the show's "epic scope", "fun character dynamics", and Arthur Darvill's performance;[93] and gave the second part of the pilot an 8.4/10, saying it "improved in its sophomore episode thanks to great character dynamics and superhero action".

Even in those weeks where the pointless romantic drama or the conflict with Vandal Savage failed to inspire much excitement, the memorable character dynamics made this show a joy to watch.