For comic book fans, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” isn’t just arguably the Holy Grail of DC comics stories, it’s a symbol of massive change, a story with far-reaching impact that still reverberate through comics to this day, three decades after publication. This fall, The CW‘s Arrowverse of DC television shows are taking on “Crisis” in the most ambitious crossover event they’ve attempted yet and like the comics it’s based on, television’s “Crisis” is going to have major impact across all the network’s shows — but it sounds like Arrow will be hit the hardest when Multiverses collide.
Speaking with ComicBook.com at San Diego Comic-Con, Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim revealed that, of all of the Arrowverse shows, it’s Arrow that will end up taking on most of the consequences. It’s something that is both surprising and oddly fitting considering that Arrow will take its final bow shortly after Crisis ends.
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“I’m tempted to say actually Arrow, and I may be a little bit biased in giving that answer but I would say if we’re able to do what we have planned, it’s pretty big consequences that come out of ‘Crisis’ for Arrow,” Guggenheim said when asked about what series would see the biggest consequences.
“I know, it’s big things right before we end the show,” he continued. “It was interesting, you know, because of the nature of ‘Crisis’ and the nature of the ten episode order for Arrow the two projects really became linked to the extent where the build up to ‘Crisis’ really takes place in Arrow and then ‘Crisis’ has to impact the final two episodes of Arrow. It’s all connected, and I think it’s going to be connected in a way that’s satisfying to people. That’s the trick. That’s the hardest part.”
As fans of Arrow already know, the path to “Crisis” kicked off in a major way during Arrow‘s Season 7 finale. After having saved Star City at long last, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) left things in the capable hands of Team Arrow while he and wife Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) went into peaceful seclusion to enjoy the quiet life and raise their daughter, Mia. However, that happiness was short lived when The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) showed up to collect on Oliver’s “Elseworlds” bargain, in the process revealing not only that Oliver would die, but that he was needed to help try to save the world from a coming cataclysm.
And that cataclysm is no joke. Guggenheim exclusively told ComicBook.com that The CW’s take on “Crisis” will start just as the comic books do, with the destruction of various parallel universes.
“Basically, we’re gonna begin — this is an exclusive — we’re gonna begin the way ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ the comic begins, which is the destruction of various parallel universes. And the goal is for us to adapt key moments from the comic, those seminal moments,” Guggenheim told us.
“In fact, yesterday I pitched to the network what the story was going to be and the best part of the pitch, we have a board that DC made up for me, which is covers from key issues of ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’. And we’re like, ‘We’re gonna do our version of this, we’re gonna do our version of this, we’re gonna do our version of this.’ Our goal is, the thing we’ve been saying, is we’re going to make a list of 100 cool things that we want to do. And even if we only get to do 50, we’re still doing 50 cool things.”
Arrow returns for its eighth and final season on Tuesday, October 15th at 9/8con The CW. “Crisis on Infinite Earths” comes to the Arrowverse this December.
