One of the DC most beloved storylines is about to go live in primetime and after Marvel Studios Avengers: Endgame epic fans expectations have reached a fever pitch! Will The CW deliver?
With Marvel Studios having stepped up the genre narrative by bringing the first decade of the superhero epics to a natural conclusion in the recent blockbuster Avengers: Endgame and the upcoming second installment of the web-slingers solo run Spider-Man: Far From Home promising to open the door to the possibilities of a Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, how will the The CW’s primetime universe compare will the highly anticipated “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover airs this Fall? It’s leaving many fans to speculate…some worlds will live, and some worlds might…
Well, you understand where we’re going with this.
While on his recent comic-con convention circuit promoting the “Elseworlds” event, The Flash actor John Wesley Shipp who has played a myriad of characters throughout the world of the Scarlet Speedster, was constantly bombarded with questions from fans about his own surprise appearance in the 3-part storyline. Shipp who played the original role of Barry Allen/The Flash for one season on the CBS primetime series in the 90s, jumped back into the suit (not the original but a remodeled version by series costume designer Kate Main) to warn our heroes about a “crisis”.
“It’s the question I get asked the most now,” Shipp admitted. “What part will I play in the upcoming ‘Crisis’? And the honest answer is: I don’t know!” It doesn’t escape him the fact that in the classic maxi-series that redefined the DC Comics universe in the 80s, the Flash sacrifices himself to save everyone. “Now what will that mean that we have — not one, but two Flashes?” Shipp said, “perhaps one will have to die to save the multiverse and Jay Garrick will get left holding suit.” In any event, the actor is hoping he’ll get to return to reprise one of his parts in the fall.
It was perhaps one of the best curated stunts of the franchise’s now more than 100 hours of television. The crossover events have become every fans’ most anticipated episodes of the season, and after battling Nazis doppelgängers, fending off an alien invasion, and bringing together legends, how were the show runners going to up the stakes? First they introduced the idea that the television multiverse is inhabited by every possible iteration of DC characters including Shipp’s “Flash” of Earth-90, the Kent Farm from Smallville and that it’s all in serious jeopardy of ending!
With the omnipotent Monitor (played by LaMonica Garrett) having made his presence known, inciting a conflict that included the appearance of the Man of Steel and having ended this season of Arrow by taking Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) on a quest of sorts, when The CW primetime universe returns in the fall, there are going to be some major dangling participles to deal with, and the introduction of a certain red-headed Caped Crusader that will undoubtedly be teaming up with the rest of the brave and bold, for that much sought after pairing of the world’s finest.
“Crisis” an Endgame
Though it’s all possible that the televised “Crisis on Infinite Earths” may not have the perpetual ramifications to the DC primetime universe that Marvel Studios Avengers: Endgame had for the cinematic story arcs, fans are expecting nothing less than a very similarly and well-crafted adaptation of one of DC Comics most epic storylines. It took Marvel a decade to get to Endgame and although The CW is promising 5-hours across all its main shows, it still has many more hours of story to build up to, especially if it intends on having as significant an emotional resonance.
As for the aftermath, what will it mean to The CW’s primetime line-up? Though there is no mention of Black Lightning participating in the crossover event, will that show in some way play a part in the fallout? Many are expecting that after the series of hints that were dropped in the latter half of the latest seasons of the show, especially in The Flash, the multiverse will collapse and their will be only one, Prime-Earth. Will that include Supergirl’s Earth-38, and what of the other alternate worlds and timelines the series have explored?
“Anything is possible,” Shipp has said. “I would never have thought that nearly 30-years later I’d be back in a superhero suit…and I’ve since been in two!” With fans hoping that more will be revealed especially at next month’s San Diego Comic-Con, you can bet that participants will be eagerly lining up, as Ruby Rose takes the stage to introduce the cast of Batwoman and give an insight into the newest addition to the primetime line-up, and the series show runners all collect themselves and practice their stock response: “The DC TV universe will never be the same again!”
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