It’s getting increasingly hard to remember a time when superheroes weren’t dominating the box office as well as the airwaves. Not only have many of our comic book dreams been realized in ways never thought possible, but the concept of a shared universe have unlocked infinite possibilities that standalone ventures would never be able to accomplish.
One man we owe a big “thank you” to is executive producer Greg Berlanti, who made The CW’s “Arrowverse” a reality. The most recent addition to it is that of Supergirl, which originally aired on CBS. Thanks to its recent move, the Girl of Steel will now be able to interact with a pantheon of characters residing beyond the boundaries of National City.
In a recent discussion with IndieWire, Berlanti spoke of the move Supergirl had to make, both in network and location:
“I just saw the director’s cut of the first episode, and I’m in as much love with the show as ever. It’s been challenging to figure out all the moving parts, moving the show across cities and across networks. But the reality is, I think the show is as strong as ever and it feels really seamless. People will not be able to tell that it’s not L.A. It feels like National City still. There are some new enhancements to the set that we were going to do anyway. Obviously some new characters are coming to the show that we would have brought in anyway to the second season. And so I’m really pleased. CBS in their own wisdom recognized it, there’s no part of the show that’s fighting itself anymore. It has a youthfulness and appeal because of the age of the leading lady, and it gets to embrace that a touch more.”
Furthermore, he spoke of its involvement in the unprecedented crossover with The Flash, Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow:
“You really are trying to run a single production across three different productions. But they’re run as three separate entities. We have to figure out when we’re borrowing one actor from where. We’re telling one cohesive story; “Supergirl” will participate, but the storyline doesn’t actively begin there. There are some characters who show up in her episode, but the story begins with “The Flash” episode and goes to “Arrow” and “Legends of Tomorrow.” We’re just getting into designing the bad guy for it, and we start now but it doesn’t air until the end of November. We will put a lot of time between now and then figuring out visual effects sequences. Just today I was holding the three scripts back-to-back – that’s 180 pages of material. It’s a three-hour story, almost a miniseries.”
Judging from that statement, it sounds like Supergirl may act as more of a prologue before things officially get underway on The Flash. I just hope the character herself gets to play a sizable role in whatever adventure ensues, otherwise some fans may feel cheated given that this has been billed as a four-show crossover for months.
Supergirl returns for its second season on Monday, October 10 on The CW.
