The Arrowverse’s “Elseworlds” crossover has certainly left plenty of fans scratching their heads, but the newest plot details will probably provide some answers.
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Entertainment Weekly recently debuted a bunch of new details about the event — including what inciting incident brings Supergirl, The Flash, and Green Arrow together this time around. You can check out the plot details below.
“The three-night event begins with Arkham Asylum doc John Deegan (Lost’s Jeremy Davies) rewriting reality, which results in Oliver (Amell) and Barry (Gustin) swapping lives. In this new reality, Oliver Queen looks like Gustin and Barry Allen looks like Amell, and the two heroes are the only ones who know they’re in the wrong lives and have each other’s powers.”
Hopefully, this will explain the first teasers of footage for the upcoming event, which showcased Barry and Oliver’s life swap in some drastically different ways, as well as the poster that shows the pair wearing each other’s costumes.
“You’re not going to see me playing Oliver Queen’s mannerisms, or Stephen playing Barry’s mannerisms. It’s more being aware that for some reason we’ve switched lives and destinies. It’s more the fun of the situational comedy that we keep finding ourselves in, and less us having a complete role reversal,” Gustin tells EW. “We get to see Stephen do some of the more goofy speed stuff I have to do on a regular basis, and I get some actual combat as Green Arrow. So, we just see different colors for each of us.”
“Having superpowers is crazy! Wearing the Flash suit is crazy!” says Amell. “The idea is that in order to be the best version of Barry Allen, which I have to be because we face a threat, there are elements of his personality I have to embrace, and there are elements of my personality that he has to embrace.”
As the report goes on to explain, Supergirl gets pulled into the event because she’s the only one who can tell what’s up with Barry and Oliver, and she agrees to help set things straight.
“My initial reaction in reading the scripts this year was that it would be a hoot to film.” Supergirl star Melissa Benoist explained in the interview. “The comedy just lives in this. Even just seeing them in each other’s suits is funny; they’re literally putting themselves in each other’s shoes! …[Kara] inevitably becomes kind of a middleman because ultimately there’s conflict between the two and they start butting heads.”
“She’s trying to help them navigate what they’re going through and support them and kind of battle their way back to being who they’re supposed to be,” Supergirl EP Robert Rovner added.
As it turns out, this set-up will allow for some pretty unique interactions between the Arrowverse’s “trinity”, which fans haven’t necessarily gotten to see in previous crossover events. A scene described in the article highlights this dynamic in a pretty major way, with the three heroes locked up in Gotham City, leading to Kara “referree[ing] an argument” between Barry and Oliver.
“The most fun aspect about really focusing on the leads is we really had a chance to tell a story about the troika that we’ve never really been able to do before,” Arrow consulting producer Marc Guggenheim explained. “When you have Legends of Tomorrow part of it, and all of the other secondary and supporting characters, the amount of time we had Grant and Stephen and Melissa on screen together was actually pretty minimal in other crossovers compared to this year.”
Are you excited by these first plot details for “Elseworlds”? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
The three-night “Elseworlds” event will begin with Supergirl on Sunday, December 9th, before carrying over to December 10th’s Arrow and December 11’s The Flash.
