Crisis on Infinite Earths Showrunner Explains Why Psycho Pirate Didn't Make It Into the Crossover
At the end of 2018's Arrowverse crossover, 'Elseworlds', fans got a huge surprise. After years of [...]
At the end of 2018's Arrowverse crossover, "Elseworlds", fans got a huge surprise. After years of teasing it was confirmed that "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was coming for the heroes of The CW's connected DC television shows and while the title card reveal at the end of the crossover made things very clear, it wasn't the only tease of the mega event that fans got during "Elseworlds". Psycho Pirate made a couple of cameo appearances in the crossover, particularly in its final moments with a direct reference to the comic book event. However, when "Crisis on Infinite Earths" made its way to The CW, Psycho Pirate didn't appear. Now, Marc Guggenheim is explaining that he wasn't really seriously considered for the big event, though they did try to incorporate him early on.
During a recent appearance on Fake Nerd Podcast, Guggenheim explained that Psycho Pirate did make it to draft stage of the crossover, but over time there just wasn't a way to insert him into the crossover that felt natural.
"He did make it to the draft stage," Guggenheim said. "For the most part, he ended up -- like, he could just never make it off the whiteboard. We had stories and moments and scenes and everything in between with him in it. But honestly, every single time we talked about him, it felt forced. It felt like we were doing this only because he's in the comic. That can't be the reason we included anybody, and that's what it felt like."
He went on to explain that while they did figure out a cameo for the character that worked, it ended up being part of a larger story element that got cut for time.
"We managed to work in a cameo for him that felt pretty legitimate. Like, it felt like, 'Okay, this is good. This works. This is satisfying,'" he explained. "But it was part of a larger story beat and that story beat ended up going away for a variety of different lengths and production reasons and a whole host of other things. Basically that story beat was us going down a certain rabbit hole that we just didn't have the story time or screen time to go down. So, unfortunately, that had to go."
While Psycho Pirate may not have had a place in the actual crossover, the character still had an important, if not small, role in the lead up to the event beyond that moment in "Elseworlds". The Flash's Season 5 premiere featured a future, 2049 newspaper post-"Crisis" that referenced Psycho Pirate -- and his memory of the events, or at least how they played out in that timeline.
"Research has focused on Roger Hayden, a.k.a. Psycho-Pirate, who claims to remember the night's events," the article read. "He said upon his arrest, 'Worlds lived, worlds died. Nothing will ever be the same.'"
The CW will re-air "Crisis on Infinite Earths" during the week of April 6. You can check out that complete schedule here.
