The CW went through their toughest undertaking yet late last year with the five-hour special “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” and not only did the crossover exceed our expectations, but the network essentially pulled out all the big stops to make it a one of a kind event.
The “Crisis” incident was several years in the making. Ever since the premiere of The Flash back in 2014, we knew that the network was pushing towards the idea of creating a multiverse of heroes, now known as The Arrowverse. Lo and behold, almost 5 years after the newspaper in the Time Vault teased one of the biggest comic crossovers of all time on the small screen, Marc Guggenheim and the rest of the execs come up with the perfect swansong for Oliver Queen, the vigilante that started it all.
And so, 2018’s “Elseworlds” set in motion what would go down as the biggest crossover event in the history of television. But apparently, even the EP was surprised to see it on a network.
“For me, seeing just the idea of this seminal comic book being adapted for live action, that in and of itself is a geek out moment for me of monumental proportions,” he said recently. “To the point where even if we didn’t have all these cameos and Easter eggs and other characters, I still would have been geeking out because I never, you know, when I was sixteen and Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 came out, it never occurred to me that it could ever be put to film, and the idea that it was, albeit on a broadcast schedule and a broadcast budget…that’s the biggest moment for me.”
In fairness, the scale of “Crisis” baffled everyone. Granted, it was not as action-packed and visually stimulating as some had expected, but even if you take the sheer number of cameos from all over the DC Universe and its numerous adaptations into account, it’s a huge achievement.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” also did a good job of setting up an even more ambitious future for The Arrowverse on Earth-Prime, but it’ll certainly be a while before the heroes decide to unite against a common threat again.