Elseworlds – The World’s Biggest Superhero Crossover in TV History Is Coming!
CW has been producing TV shows based on DC comic’s characters (because CW is owned by CBS & DC’s parent company Warner Bros., which now owned by AT&T) and these TV shows are set to be the same universe.
This TV universe is called Arrowverse due to it began with the show Arrow (2012-), which is about the iconic DC character Green Arrow. Because of the success of Arrow, CW produced a new show The Flash (2014-), which is based on an even more famous character of DC, and aired together with Arrow season 3, a TV universe began to form. Not only the characters would appear in both shows sometimes, but CW would also produce special crossover episodes every year, which is not unusual in TV shows. The Chicago franchise (Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, and canceled Chicago Justice after 1 season) also have crossover episodes every year. And they would be aired before Christmas and after New Year.
Due to the success of superheroes on the big screen, the major TV network also began to produce their own. Constantine (2014-2015), therefore, was created by NBC but canceled after 1 season, which is not surprised at all I would say because the plot was really too lame to watch. CBS also aired Supergirl (2015) – the first female-lead TV show in that trend. Unfortunately, the actings and storylines of this show were kind of terrible as well and not a good fit for CBS’s audience, so, it was canceled after 1 season; however, it was luckier than Constantine and revived on CW and have become a part of Arrowverse since then. Fox also produced Lucifer (2015-), which is based on a character from once to be DC’s subsidiary now merged- Vertigo Comics (same as Constantine), but the show got canceled after 3 seasons, not sure if it’s because of the merging of Fox and Disney. However, Lucifer has much better luck than other canceled shows based on DC characters- it got revived on Netflix.
CW added another show to the universe- Legends of Tomorrow- the first and only original show with a team of DC characters, which may not be popular and famous enough to have their own show, in Arrowverse. Although this show is not like the others, which have more famous characters to get attention, it gives CW a chance to place some failed characters into this show, such as Constantine, which became a series regular in season 4. Now Arrow welcomes its last season (season 8), CW produced another show to expand the universe- Superwoman (2019), which is CW’s first superhero show has an LGBT lead character and had its first appearance in the crossover episodes in 2018 to test the water.
And this year’s crossover event would not only assemble the characters from Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Superwoman, but also Tom Welling’s Clark Kent and Erica Durance’s Lois Lane from Smallville (2001–2011), Kevin Conroy, who voiced Bruce Wayne in Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995) will portray Bruce Wayne, and Brandon Routh, who portrayed The Atom in Legends of Tomorrow and Superman in Superman Returns (2006), will play Superman again (so, there will be 3 Superman), Black Lightning from Black Lightning (2018-) (another superhero show airing on CW but not part of Arrowverse), Ashley Scott as Huntress from Birds of Prey (2002-2003), Burt Ward- the Robin in Batman (1966), and Osric Chau’s Ryan Choi from Supernatural (2005-).
No matter this crossover event would be good or not, these cast members from different shows as Easter eggs would be exciting enough. But I would like to see Justin Hartley’s Green Arrow and Alan Ritchson’s Aquaman from Smallville show up again.
Who else you would wish to see them in this special event? Feel free to leave your comment.