It’s hard to imagine how the Arrowverse might top last year’s Crisis on Infinite Earths event, the five-part crossover that brought together not only all of the CW DC superhero shows but also brought in comic nods, DC shows from other networks, and Ezra Miller‘s Barry Allen from the DC film universe.
It was a bit of a coup to get Miller into the crossover for a brief, but iconic, scene with Grant Gustin‘s Barry Allen. However, it showed that the TV universe and film universe could be more connected going forward, and Arrowverse architect Greg Berlanti is definitely open to the idea of having more characters from the film universe find their way to The CW. However, we might have to wait a while before that starts to happen.
“I think truly because of COVID right now and the pandemic, our aspirations aren’t quite as large,” Berlanti said during the Multiverse 101 panel during DC FanDome with DC Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee and DC Films boss Walter Hamada. “We’d just like to start shooting again that we would be happy to invite any feature characters that [Jim Lee and Walter Hamada] would have on.”
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The good news is that it seems like Berlanti isn’t the only one open for more collaboration between TV and film, or at least letting more characters into the TV world.
“In the past it’s been like, ‘Well, features might do something with that so stay away from it.’ It could be years before that character ever showed up on the screen, if it even showed up on the screen,” Hamada added in the panel. “It doesn’t make sense to hold that back from fans. Let’s explore that. By the way, if [fans] fall in love with the character in TV and we do something in the movies, three years down the road — all the better! It’s just a greater awareness for the characters.”
It might be a while before we can see this new team spirit in action, though. In normal times, The CW superhero suite would have been back to filming for almost a month now and the creative teams would be gearing up for crossover production to begin in October. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant delay in filming and the shows aren’t expected to return to air until the beginning of 2021 at the earliest. Due to the time constraints, it’s still up in the air how this season’s crossover will work and how many TV players will be involved — let alone if it’s possible for film characters to be roped in as well.
Still, Miller’s appearance has opened the door for a lot more crossover possibilities, and we can’t wait to see what that means for the Arrowverse’s future.
Ezra Miller and Grant Gustin, Crisis on Infinite Earths
