Each year, it seems like Arrowverse crossovers get bigger, better and more ambitious. After witnessing “Invasion!” and “Crisis on Earth-X,” I wasn’t sure what the producers could do next, but they decided to go with something that was right in front of our faces by putting their own stamp on the “Elseworlds” concept.
Of course, none can be too sure of how the next few annual mashups will play out, but we’re all expecting for a climax to be built toward in the form of a Crisis on Infinite Earths adaptation. Having first been teased by a headline from the future in The Flash‘s pilot episode, viewers with comic book familiarity have naturally assumed this to be the endgame.
Speaking of which, executive producer and current showrunner Todd Helbing had this to say to ComicBook.com when asked if teasing Barry Allen’s disappearance in said event will ever come full circle:
“Yeah. But that’s all I can say. Greg [Berlanti] really has a sort of master plan of things, and I’m really excited about how it’s going to pay off.”
Knowing how Berlanti, a chief architect of the Arrowverse, has cited Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s classic graphic novel as being one of the books that got him into the medium of comics, I’d certainly say adapting it in any form would be a dream come true for him.
Also chiming in on the subject was series lead Grant Gustin, who said:
“It is really fulfilling” to see some of the Crisis stuff play out, Gustin told us. “I hope we can stick around long enough to see what’s going on with that newspaper article. We’d have to make it four more seasons, five more seasons. It’s cool, though. It feels like it’s earned. Me and Stephen had that conversation a lot during the crossover, actually. There’s a lot of even just comedic moments that we have that are funny because they’re earned — because of the history of the characters and the journey they’ve been on. It is one of the best parts of doing these as a series versus a film — people have been with us. I’ve met kids who have gone through all of high school watching this show. To have that kind of stamp on people’s lives is pretty special.”
Like Gustin hinted, the show would have to go to ten seasons in order for us to arrive at the moment of the Crisis being teased for 2024, so fingers remain crossed. Of course, a time jump could be one solution to get around that, but it could only happen if this were to outlive its sister series.
The Flash airs on Tuesday nights on The CW.
