Osric Chau Pitched a Ryan Choi Spinoff Years Before "Crisis on Infinite Earths"

The CW's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover brought quite a lot of things into the live-action DC Comics multiverse, from jaw-dropping cameos to long-awaited changes to the continuity. Beginning in the crossover's third hour, Arrowverse fans were introduced to a whole new character -- Ryan Choi (Supernatural alum Osric Chau), a scientist who was reluctantly recruited to be one of the seven Paragons in the ensuing "Crisis". In the comics, Ryan has been a fan-favorite character among many for the past nearly-fifteen years, after he became the third character to take on the mantle of The Atom. If you're among those who think that Ryan's live-action debut was a long time coming - especially given Ray Palmer/The Atom's (Brandon Routh) long-standing role in the Arrowverse - you're not alone.

ComicBook.com recently got a chance to chat with Chau about all things "Crisis", and about the years he has spent campaigning to play Ryan Choi. As he revealed, this culminated in him and his roommate creating a pitch for a hypothetical Ryan Choi show, which ended up coinciding too closely with the early days of Routh's tenure as the character.

"I was just so in love with the idea of this Ryan Choi character," Chau explained. "I had just started on Supernatural and I was like 'Oh God, you know what? The CW would totally do this.' They had, I think, two of the DC shows back then. I'm like, 'This would make so much sense.' Me and my friend Eric, we put together this pitch deck and we got the whole first season arc on it. This is an incredible idea for a show, with Ivy Town, Ivy University, there's so much happening. You can literally make the show go on forever."

"We brought it to The CW, and then they told us that they were already developing something for The Atom, and they couldn't look at it," Chau continued. "I'm assuming that was Legends of Tomorrow. But you know what? Six, seven years later, it came back around."

"It feels like a fairy tale almost," Chau said of finally landing the role. "It's like 'Wow, I can't believe how everything kind of worked itself out.'"

"Crisis on Infinite Earths" is available to stream in its entirety on The CW's website.