This year’s upcoming crossover between the CW’s DC Comics superhero shows will feature Supergirl visiting the three other series — Arrow, The Flash, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. The crossover will kick off with The Flash (Grant Gustin) and his friend Cisco (Carlos Valdes) recruiting Melissa Benoist at the end of an episode of Supergirl for some help in fighting an alien threat.
“Once the heroes realize that they’re up against aliens, they decide that they need an alien on their side,” Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim explained to a room full of press today at The CW’s headquarters in Burbank, California” “Fortunately, Barry knows a really nice one. I don’t think it’s a big shock that between Barry and Cisco, and all their experiences with Earth-2 and the multi-verse, that they can pluck her from Earth-CBS,” the producer joked before clarifying how many episodes will actually be involved in this team-up. “Some people call it a four-way crossover because it involves four shows. My ulcer requires me to call it a three-part crossover. The story that’s being told has a beginning, middle, and end: it’s a beginning in Flash, a middle in Arrow, and an end in Legends. But Supergirl is very much a part of the whole thing, so we are crossing over four shows. Four shows in three parts, how’s that sound?”
Of course, the landmark 100th episode of Arrow manages to be right in the middle of this crossover, and fans of the Stephen Amell-fronted series might be worried that that means Arrow’s 100th might not be the celebration that they would expect. It was a challenge, but one that the producers seemed ready for.
“The challenge was that we’ve only got 42 minutes, and it’s the middle part of a three-part story, and at the same time, it’s the 100th episode, and, God, when the news broke that the 100th episode was also going to be the crossover episode, people were up and down my Twitter and Greg [Berlanti]’s Twitter — I think, in this case, in a very positive way. People didn’t want to feel like the crossover was hijacking what should be a really seminal episode and a seminal moment for the show Arrow, which I think is wonderful,” Guggenheim explained. “Greg came up with an idea that really does allow us to have our cake and eat it, too. haven’t seen the episode all cut together yet, but it has some incredibly iconic moments. It is a love letter to the show. It draws on all previous 99 episodes, pretty much. Everyone who we could have in the episode, from a scheduling point of view, is in the episode. Even the people who we couldn’t have because of conflicting schedules are represented. At the same time, you’ve got Flash and Supergirl, and that’s an enormous amount of fun. Certainly the recruits also play a very large role, an important role, in the episode.”
“I’m really excited about it,” Guggenheim continued. “There’s one moment in it that I think is probably Stephen [Amell]’s finest performance to date. This one scene, that really has two moments within the one scene, it will break your heart. It will totally take your heart, and pull it out, and stomp it on the floor. It’s very, very affecting, and it’s all on Stephen’s back. It’s incredible. Willa [Holland]’s amazing in the episode. Everyone obviously brought their A-game to it. I’m really, really excited about it. It’s the 100th episode!”
We’ll have a lot more coverage of Arrow’s 100th episode coming soon at our Arrow portal, GreenArrowTV. A new episode of Arrow airs tomorrow night (October 19) at 8PM on The CW — see some preview images here!
