Even after having spent a season on Arrow, former Shadowhunters star Katherine McNamara did some geeking out on the set of The CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover, the actress revealed during a recent interview with ComicBook.com. As one of the youngest actors to play a major character in the Arrowverse, McNamara is somewhat unique among the cast in that she has grown up for much of her life with comic books already in the zeitgeist, and has lived with superheroes being a big pop cultural deal as long as she has been alive (McNamara was born in 1995, so not only was the Burton/Schumacher Batman series still a thing, but by the time she was 5 years old we were starting to get X-Men movies).
McNamara told us that she is aware of how lucky she is to be part of this moment in pop culture history, and hopes that her portrayal of Mia Smoak will do the Green Arrow legacy justice.
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“I can’t say too much about the Crisis,” McNamara said. “But I definitely did a fair amount of fangirling, and there are really special moments that happen where you’re sitting on set, and just having a casual conversation with someone, and you look around and there’s so many iconic costumes — so many things that for decades have been such symbols of heroism and of this kind of comic book genre that we’re working in and you realize how special it is. And that it really is a moment to take it in and realize, it makes me really grateful to be doing what I’m doing and to have an opportunity to be a part of this at a moment like this.”
Asked what she watched as a kid, McNamara name-dropped the Justice League cartoons — in which “Crisis on Infinite Earths” guest star Kevin Conroy voiced Batman.
“I grew up watching the old Justice League cartoons and obviously most of my life Marvel movies and DC movies have been occupying a lot of the blockbusters every year,” McNamara admitted. “Superheroes are so prevalent and such a powerful force and then going, oh, now I have to be this person and I have to do this. And it’s a responsibility and it’s one that I don’t take lightly, but it’s one that I’m very excited to get to carry a little bit. Working with Steven, this season, has been so wonderful because I’ve gotten to watch him do just that and I’ve gotten to watch how he handled this responsibility and this legacy as it were. And it’s been great to follow in his footsteps, in a sense.”
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” kicks off on Sunday, December 8 on Supergirl, runs through a Monday episode of Batwoman and that Tuesday’s episode of The Flash. That will be the midseason cliffhanger, as the shows go on hiatus for the holidays and return on January 14 to finish out the event with the midseason premiere of Arrow and a “special episode” of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which launches as a midseason series this year and so will not have an episode on the air before the Crisis.
Arrow airs on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following episodes of The Flash on The CW.
