Spoilers ahead for tonight’s episode of The Flash, titled “Invasion!”
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Tonight, fans of The Flash finally met the President of the United States in the Arrowverse — and it wasn’t Lynda Carter.
Carter, who starred in the 1970s Wonder Woman TV series, recently came to Supergirl to play President Olivia Marsdin in an episode that dealt with an “alien amnesty act” that has been a controversial part of the season so far.
And, yes, the producers of The Flash, Arrow, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow wanted to have Carter play the President on The Flash — but they didn’t want to kill her. After the quick death of the (male) President, the plan was to introduce Marsdin as the Vice President who would take his place — but a studio note actually put the kibosh on it.
“We did, actually,” consider making Lynda Carter the President on The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow EP Marc Guggenheim said. “In the first draft of the script, she was the vice president who becomes the President, and we got a note from the studio which we think was pretty fair, which was that it was a bit too confusing. You get into the parallel Earths of it all but she’s not the President on our Earth but the Vice President. In the midst of time travel and aliens, it was just one sci-fi problem too much.”
Guggenheim said that while he was eager to be on set that day and see Carter at work in the DC Universe, he understood the note and conceded that if people at the studio were confused by the script, it was probably not particularly friendly to casual fans.
Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl will cross over with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow this week in “Invasion!” a three-part crossover that starts in the final moments of an episode of Supergirl and then plays through the other series. Based on the 1988 comic book event miniseries Invasion! from Keith Giffen, Bill Mantlo, Todd McFarlane, Bart Sears, and the crossover — with its marketing title “Heroes vs. Aliens” — will closely track the plot of that storyline: aliens will be assembled by The Dominators and descend on Earth to bring an end to the “threat” of Earth’s burgeoning metahuman community.
In the comics, the Dominion were secretly hoping to build their own super-race, and as a result created a handful of new superheroes in the course of the story.
In the TV version, rather than assembling a loose alliance of dangerous alien races, the Dominators will apparently be mind-controlling the aliens that join them. That’s a revelation that suggests even the heroes might be forced to take one another (or at least the alien Supergirl) on at some point in the story.
NEXT: The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow Crossover Trailer / First Look At The Dominators / Invasion! Crossover Promo Photos / Potential The Flash Spoiler Spotted On Set / Will Joe West Die During The Invasion! Crossover? / Enter To Win An Ultra-Rare Invasion! Crossover T-Shirt
Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT; The Flash on Tuesdays at the same time; Arrow on Wednesdays and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow on Thursdays. All four series air on The CW. The “Invasion!” crossover will air beginning November 28.
