Will Black Lightning Be Part of "Crisis on Infinite Earths"?

"Crisis on Infinite Earths" is coming. The multiverse-changing event will officially come to the Arrowverse this fall and, over the course of five hours, will see the heroes face their biggest threat yet with potentially devastating outcome -- after all, we already know that Oliver Queen will die, while it's possible that other characters' lives may be at stake as well. But when it comes to those characters, there's at least one of The CW's DC Comics-inspired heroes that we probably won't have to worry about because they aren't likely to be a part of it: Black Lightning.

Black Lightning, as well as the other heroes and characters appearing on the television series of the same name, probably aren't going to be making any appearances in "Crisis on Infinite Earths". The biggest reason for that is the same reason Black Lightning hasn't crossed over with any of the Arrowverse shows thus far and that reason is that, in addition to shooting in Atlanta as opposed to Vancouver, Black Lightning has been established as its own show and contained universe -- a Lightningverse, if you will.

The idea that Black Lightning is its own, unique show is something that's been driven home very specifically during its second season, particularly with its set up of a likely conflict with Markovia during the season finale. With the way things left off, it seems pretty clear that Markovia is going to play a major role in Season 3 and while the Arrowverse shows all set the table for "Crisis" related things in their finale's, Black Lightning simply didn't.

There's also the matter of how "Crisis" is likely to play out. The crossover is set to run for five hours -- generally one hour per Arrowverse show once Batwoman debuts this fall. That wouldn't really leave much space to bring Black Lightning in in a meaningful way that would not only make sense but play out well as "Crisis" will likely see the end of Arrow's run and may see Supergirl brought to Earth-1 permanently. It just doesn't make sense to try to shoehorn Black Lightning in there.

Of course, that isn't to say that it can't happen. As we saw leading into last fall's "Elseworlds", The CW was able to include nods to other, non-Arrowverse shows by making them a part of Earth-90, an Earth that apparently included nods to not only the 1990s The Flash, but Smallville as well so The CW could do something similar to weave Black Lightning in. It just really doesn't feel particularly likely and honestly? That's okay. After all, as Black Lightning star Cress Williams said last year, Black Lightning has his community to protect. It doesn't make sense for the hero to go and help the Arrowverse try to save the multiverse.

"It would be hard," Cress said. "The thing is, I don't know, I don't see the world where I would want to leave my community to help them, basically, we got our hands full."

"Crisis on Infinite Earths" comes to the Arrowverse this fall.