Crisis Showrunner Explains Why [SPOILER] Died So Early
by Cynthia VinneyWARNING: The following contains major spoilers for "Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part 1," which premiered Sunday on The CW.
The first hour of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" has finally aired and the episode concluded with a surprise tragedy as Oliver Queen perished after heroically staying behind to save more people on Earth-38. Fans have known Oliver was likely to meet his end in the crossover, but no one expected it to happen so soon. In a Q&A, "Crisis" showrunner Marc Guggenheim explained the reasoning behind the decision to take out Oliver so early.
“It really came off of [last season's crossover] 'Elseworlds,' which strongly suggested that Oliver was going to die," he said, "and then the Arrow seventh season finale, where we told the audience Oliver’s going to die in 'Crisis.' So the dilemma that we presented to our own selves was that we spoiled our own story. So if Oliver dying isn’t the surprise, what is the surprise?
"And the timing of him dying [was the solution] because I think… we’ve kind of figured the audience is expecting that Oliver would die in the climax in the fifth hour, so if we went in the exact opposite direction and killed him off at the end of hour one we accomplish two things: hopefully we do surprise the audience, that’s absolutely the intention, but we also really establish the stakes, that going into the next four hours, ‘Wow, if Oliver Queen can die, then no one is safe.’”
Another reason for the decision, according to Legends of Tomorrow showrunner Keto Shimizu, was that it helps to propel the other characters' stories forward moving into the remainder of the crossover.
"It sets up really interesting stories and conflicts between all these characters," Shimizu observed, "all these leads of these different shows who have different ways of reacting to this tragedy. And you get to see them all grieve together in a really compelling way.”
Arrow showrunner Beth Schwartz concurred, noting, "The leads all have a different take on how to grieve or handle Oliver’s death. Some of them believe it’s over, some of them believe ‘We can fix this,’ some of them are not wanting to even think about it. So everyone has a different approach to it and that helps generate the story for the [second] episode."
Supergirl showrunner Robert Rovner added that the loss of Earth-38 will also hit Supergirl and the other characters who lived there hard. “For Kara, in addition to [the death of] Oliver, she’s grieving the loss of her Earth," Rovner explained, "and so she comes into it wanting to try and figure out how to fix what’s happened. And that is kind of her journey very much… in the rest of the crossover.”
Knowing that Part One of "Crisis" would end with Oliver's demise also led the showrunners to give him a special moment with important characters he wasn't able to interact with on Arrow. "It was really important to me that Sara have some really significant moments with Oliver in the beginning of this 'Crisis' in order to remind the audience how far they go back and how embedded her history is with his and how important he is to her in her life and where she’s ended up," Shimizu said.
“And also for her to see the person he’s become," Schwartz added, "and to really acknowledge that. Because… on Arrow we’ve spent eight seasons doing that and so it was nice to have Sara be a part of that.”
The episode wasn't all tragedy though. In fact, the crossover opened with some exciting cameos, including Burt Ward, Robert Wuhl and characters from the DC Universe series Titans. Guggenheim noted that we can expect some additional cameos in the remaining four hours of the crossover but not so many that they overshadow the story being told.
“We’re still working on a bunch [of cameos] actually," Guggenheim said. "There’s a sequence that is in one of the upcoming episodes that is not dissimilar to the sequence you saw at the beginning of hour one where, if it all comes together the way it’s supposed to, it’s one of my favorite things."
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" begins Sunday, Dec. 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Supergirl, then continues in Batwoman on Monday, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and in The Flash on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. After the winter hiatus, the crossover will conclude on Tuesday, Jan. 14 in Arrow at 8 p.m. ET/PT and in DC's Legends of Tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
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