LEGENDS OF TOMORROW’s Adam Tsekhman on Gary’s Surprise Season 6 Twist

Though LEGENDS OF TOMORROW made it clear that aliens would be a huge part of season 6 when Sara (Caity Lotz) was abducted at the end of season 5, it saved its biggest reveal until the show’s return: Gary (Adam Tsekhman) is an alien!

“They looped me in [to the twist] near the end of season 5, but it was like a debate that they were having,” Tsekhman recalls. “So it wasn’t confirmed, but the seed was planted. I thought it was really fun [and] hilarious. I love that they give me and Gary lots of interesting and fun things to play with.”

Though this wasn’t planned from the start, it worked out. “It started to justify certain aspects of his behavior,” Tsekhman says with a laugh. “There were like moments in previous seasons where I’m like, ‘This is maybe like a little ridiculous, he doesn’t understand [this], as an adult,’ but now kind of makes sense.”

But until it was official, Tsekhman had to keep the potential twist out of his brain while filming last season. “I had to think, okay, does this mean that I change anything? I was like, no, all the stuff that has happened, that’s part of the show; that’s the canon So now with this new piece of information, how do you justify the past? And figure out how to play the future.”

“But Gary’s still Gary,” he continues. “His personality doesn’t change—even if it’s this hideous, scary-looking alien with teeth and a chest that swallows human beings whole. Even those aliens can have a soft heart!”

What he did discuss with the writers was why Gary left his home planet.

“I don’t know if this is actually going to make [to air], [it was] an early thought, that this planet is very strongly female-dominated,” Tsekhman shares. “And that the males die in childbirth. Perhaps Gary was just like, ‘I don’t want to die, I’m leaving, I’m getting out of here.’ I don’t know that that’s actually going to be part of [the story], but that informed, okay, he escaped a situation [where] maybe he was sold off as a husband to his fiancee and he just escaped this impending doom.”

“And I thought, ‘Okay, well that’s certainly a strong motivation,’” he continues. “Now I don’t [know if they went] in that direction, but that at least gave me an understanding of this is life and death for Gary. Maybe if you’re born knowing that this is the role of the male in our species: continue to procreate and keep our species alive and you die. And maybe he just didn’t want to die.”

But he was playing with fire by being a part of Sara’s abduction–something he is eager to make up for now.

“She feels betrayed, obviously,” Tsekhman says. “He’s trying to patch that up and show her he didn’t really have a choice. He didn’t have a choice as whether she would get abducted or not, but he does have a choice what happens after that. [His thought is,] ‘I had to do this, but I also don’t want you to be a prisoner forever, so I’m going to help you escape.’ And so that’s his mea culpa: Let me fix our relationship, let me fix this situation, and hopefully get you home.”

And while Gary’s big secret is now out there, Tsekhman says his character doesn’t exactly feel entirely unburdened by the reveal. “A little bit, but I do think that with the layers of this onion/secret…there’s just more to it,” he previews. “I think keeping some things hidden may be good, because who knows what [the writers] will spring upon Gary in the future?”

LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, Sunday, 8/7c, The CW

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