Arrowverse “Elseworlds” Crossover Casts LaMonica Garrett as The Monitor

Huge news for DC fans: one of the most significant characters in the history of DC’s multiverse is coming to the Arrowverse in December.

LaMonica Garrett has been cast in the role of The Monitor, introduced as one of the warring forces behind Crisis on Infinite Earths.

According to the official character description, “LaMonica plays Mar Novu, an extraterrestrial being of infinite power known as the Monitor. The Monitor was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez as part of DC Comics’ 50th Anniversary. Mr. Pérez will be illustrating a sketch of the Monitor that plays a prominent role in the crossover’s story.”

The Monitor was one of two ageless beings (the other being the Anti-Monitor) who personified and wielded the energies of the matter and anti-matter universes. Crisis on Infinite Earths dealt with the idea that since the matter universe had been split into an infinite multiverse, each of the individual universes was weaker, leaving them more vulnerable to attack by the Anti-Monitor than they otherwise would have been. At the end of the story, most of the universes were destroyed and the universe that remained was DC’s only one, with all of its history merged into one, for about twenty years until the next set of Crises.

Given that the “Elseworlds” brand was the name of an imprint that ran from 1989 until 2010, bringing new twists to familiar DC characters and presenting them in “what if…” scenarios, the involvement of the Monitor raises questions about whether the story will take place on either of the two primary Earths in the Arrowverse (Earth-1, where The Flash and Arrow take place, or Supergirl‘s Earth-38).

It may also be interesting to see whether an alternate-Earth take on Lyla Michaels (Arrow‘s Audrey Marie Anderson) will serve as the Harbinger, Monitor’s right-hand, and the character’s role in the comics.

If the “Elseworlds” story really is an alternate-reality tale, it would make sense to exclude DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which shares a universe with the other shows but will not be participating in this year’s crossover, because alterations to the timeline are kind of their whole raison d’etre, which would make the whole story feel like just an extended Legends episode of the team were in attendance.

The “Elseworlds” Arrowverse crossover will take place across three nights, kicking off on Sunday, Dec. 9th on The Flash at 8 p.m. ET. It continues on Arrow Monday, Dec. 10th at 8 p.m. and then finishes up on Supergirl Tuesday, Dec. 11th at 8 p.m. ET.