The Supergirl – Arrow – Legends of Tomorrow – Flash crossover’s emotional component
While there may not be too much out there in terms of specifics, what we can say is that the powers-at-be over at the DC Comics – CW machine seem to have their head in the right place. Once you’ve seen something big and crazy and the characters know each other on some level, you have to divert expectations once more. This seems to be what is in the cards now, judging from what executive producer Marc Guggenheim had to say on the subject to Entertainment Weekly:
“The crossover is always the most challenging thing we do, but it’s also the most fun. Every year we feel the pressure [to top ourselves]. I feel like each crossover has topped the previous one. Topping last year’s, that’s a high bar, if for no other reason than what do you do that’s bigger than aliens? We’ve got some very, very exciting ideas…. Very early on in the process of doing last year’s crossover, Greg [Berlanti] said there’s probably no way to get bigger than aliens, so the best way to make the [next] crossover especially epic is if you can’t increase the bombast, increase the emotional stakes and the emotional payoffs, so that’s a very oblique comment on where our heads are at for this season.”
Going in the emotional direction is smart, given that this is a universe with a limited budget, and hopefully over the course of last season they realized further that there are mistakes that can come courtesy of trying to be too big and doing too much. With these shows, they are so much better off trying to scale things down a little bit, and providing stories that are more about the people and the relationships between each other. Keep the humor and keep some of the showdowns, but the crossover last year didn’t have much in the way of compelling villains. It was also fairly similar to the Grodd two-parter on The Flash in which there was only so much of the ape battle that they could show. (The visual artists with this franchise are great, but there is only so much that they can be used.)
More than likely, the next big crossover is going to be coming in November or December. Odds are, details will start to unearth this fall when production on them begins.
If you missed it…
You can head over here to get some of the first scoop on Iris’ struggle at the start of The Flash, which will probably be geared around trying to get Barry back. (Photo: The CW.)