PaleyFest 2017: ‘Arrowverse’ Cast and Producers Tease What’s to Come
The cast and crew of The CW’s Arrowverse—which consists of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow—were honored Saturday at PaleyFest. Before the panel, they dished to TV Insider about the upcoming musical crossover, rule-bending finales, tear-jerking reunions, pivotal moments and more of what’s to come.
The cast and crew were as into the Supergirl-Flash musical crossover as fans will be.
Supergirl and The Flash will once again combine forces in the March 21 episode of The Flash. (The story kicks off the night before at the end of Supergirl.) But with the added twist of the musical element, the duo—and other members of the Arrowverse—will team up in new ways. “The exciting thing for me, even as a viewer, was getting to see these incredible people sing,” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg says. “You know their pedigree, you know where they came from, but to sit there and watch John Barrowman, Jesse Martin and Victor Garber sing in front of you was just a dream come true. The musical gets better as it goes along; it starts amazing, but each new song is better than the last one.”
For stars Melissa Benoist (Kara/Supergirl), Grant Gustin (Barry/The Flash) and guest star Darren Criss (Music Meister) the occasion marked a mini-Glee reunion. “I think you’re in for a romping, rousing good time,” Benoist says. “I didn’t realize how much I missed Glee. It was such a fun show to work on, and obviously part of the zeitgeist, but doing that again, with the people I did that with on the show, it made me really nostalgic. It felt good to get those dancing shoes back on.”
Barry and Kara bust a move.
The pressure of the episode could have been overwhelming, but the trio also had former Glee choreographer Zach Woodlee on-hand to guide them for the Flash hour. “I did my best to not think about it until we started, or I would have been really nervous,” Gustin says. “It was fun. The crew had so much fun, which really carried me through it. I never got to do anything with Melissa on Glee, so it was cool to do a duet and a tap number [here]. I hadn’t tapped in like a decade, which was amazing.”
“And Darren was the first actor I ever worked with on-camera, ever,” Gustin continues. “I have a picture of us together from my first day on Glee framed in my apartment. I returned a book to Darren that he gave to me my first day on Glee: ‘Camera Acting for Dummies,’ which explained what everyone’s job was on set. And I’ve had it for six years! So I gave it back to Darren.”
Teri Hatcher is “badass” on Supergirl.
With former Lois & Clark star Hatcher now guest starring on Supergirl as Rhea, “my favorite scene in Monday’s episode is between Teri and Melissa,” Kreisberg gushes. “Teri, she sank her teeth into this role. It’s kind of like nothing she’s played before. She’s been such a joy to work with. It’s amazing to have her around.”
Benoist was equally thrilled by her time with Hatcher. “There are a few scenes I think people will love to see, especially fans of Lois & Clark,” she says. “Having her on the show only enhances it. She is the perfect addition. There is a scene we did together that I think people will not expect. She is a badass.”
Will Prometheus/Adrian (Josh Segarra) break Oliver (Stephen Amell)?
With Oliver being held by Adrian, the Arrow Season 5 big bad has a goal in mind: “What you’re going to see is as Chase is torturing Oliver and trying to get him to confess a secret,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim teases. “We are going to flashback to Russia and a pivotal moment in Oliver’s experience. It’s a really powerful episode. I will say, I don’t think the series will be the same after it…because of the actions in the present day. Oliver will confess a secret to Adrian Chase. The big mystery of the episode is what is Oliver’s secret?”
The hour posed its own challenges, production-wise, for Amell. “I don’t know that I’ve ever worked so hard on an episode before, aside from maybe the second episode of the entire series,” he told reporters. “I was just in everything…it could literally be called the deconstruction of Oliver Queen. It’s pretty gnarly. It gave me incredible levels of anxiety, because it felt like if there was a misstep, it could be something we couldn’t come back from.”
When Oliver leaves his encounter, he’s “very changed,” Amell said. “And resolute, in the wrong way. Resigned. Chase isn’t trying to kill him; Chase is trying to sell him something…That causes a lot of problems with the team.”
In Oliver’s absence, Diggle (David Ramsey) will once again take lead of Team Arrow. “He has to kick the new recruits into gear to get Oliver back,” Ramsey previews. “I think what was even bigger than that is we have to do something about Prometheus.”
The Legends of Tomorrow finale breaks a key rule.
For two seasons the Legends have jumped all over time, with the warning they couldn’t go back to occasions they had already been. But in the finale “what we’re leading up to is breaking a rule,” Guggenheim says. “That’s what the Legends are going to do. It’s a little bit of our homage to Back to the Future 2, with a Legends-esque spin. It has major consequences.”
“Things are going to get really bad, ” Caity Lotz (Sara) says. “They are going to have to do some things they shouldn’t be doing. They’re going to have to break some rules and go against their own codes. The finale is the biggest episode we’ve ever done.”
Candice Patton as Iris West
Savitar will be unmasked soon…but can Barry save Iris (Candice Patton)?
Now that Team Flash is aware that Savitar is actually a human under a suit, it won’t be long before they find out his true identity. “He’ll be unmasked soon,” Kreisberg promises. “The ramifications of who it actually is under that suit will take the show in a surprising direction.” Adds executive producer Aaron Helbing: “It’s going to make everyone question everything.” (And though Barry has battled speedsters in the show’s first three years, Kreisberg teased during the PaleyFest panel that the foe in Season 4 would break tradition.)
And though Barry has had mixed results saving his loved ones in his past, he remains determined to save Iris from her possible death. “I would say all of his mistakes are forefront in his mind,” Helbing says. However, “at the end of the day, he’s still going to do whatever it takes to save the woman he loves. Everything is on the table when it comes to saving Iris.”
Post-musical, Barry attempts to embrace a new (old) mindset. “He’s doing the best he can to get back to the old Barry Allen: he’s choosing hope and optimism, even in the face of everything he’s facing,” Gustin says. “We’re trying to see him optimistic, but he’ll be continuously pulled down, obviously. And his love causes him to make decisions that are really best for him. Now he’s trying to make decisions for the team, and he’s sacrificing his own needs a little bit.”
Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance
The Lance sisters will reunite on Legends of Tomorrow.
Guggenheim shared on social media that Katie Cassidy would be reprising her role of Laurel Lance in the Legends finale, and he says the scene was a long time coming. “I have to give a shout-out to Katie Cassidy,” Guggenheim says. “It’s only one scene, but man, she’s spectacular in it. It’s a scene we’ve wanted to do since the beginning of the season. We really wanted to get Sara and Laurel back together.”
“It was wonderful,” adds Lotz. “Katie and I hadn’t been able to do a scene together in years. She feels like my sister now, so it was very emotional, nostalgic, and I think people will really like it.”
But will Laurel pop up on any of the other DC shows before the season concludes? “I can say absolutely nothing,” Guggenheim says.
Will there be trouble in paradise for Arrow‘s Diggle and Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson)?
Much of Diggle’s home life has been off-screen recently, but there could be rough seas ahead. “You’re going to see some conflict between Diggle and Lyla,” Ramsey previews. “Lyla is the leader of ARGUS. She has her finger on the Suicide Squad. How does that impact a man like John Diggle, when they cohabitate? I’m looking forward to them exploring that; what Flashpoint did to the couple. We’re talking about that at the end of the season and more next season.”
Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) and Diggle (David Ramsey) are bonding.
And though Ramsey acknowledges he has heard from people about potential sparks between Diggle and Dinah (Juliana Harkavy), he admits it’s probably just the actors’ natural chemistry. “Juliana is an incredible actress, and I think she just lights up the screen,” he says.
Will Hank get in trouble on Supergirl?
An upcoming episode finds President Marsdin (Lynda Carter) asking Hank (David Harewood) for a favor…but it puts him in a particularly difficult position. “She’s asking me not to do something and I do it,” Harewood laughs. “It’s something involving Supergirl. I disobey the President in order to help Supergirl. At the end of the day she’s his [figurative] daughter, and family first.”
And since Hank is “going out on a big limb,” the fallout is still TBD. “I’m waiting to see what my consequences are,” Harewood admits.
Team Oliver versus Team Felicity?!
As Felicity gets deeper in with the hacker group Helix on Arrow, she finds herself dealing with her own set of complicated issues. “One of the things we wanted to do with Felicity was have her walk a [bit] in Oliver’s footsteps,” Guggenheim says. “Have her experience a little bit of the moral ambiguity he lives with on a daily basis. And for us, that’s the experience with Helix. It’s going to connect up with the Prometheus story in an interesting and unexpected way. I’m very excited about the way it comes together.”
How will Oliver react? “He does trust her, but that doesn’t mean he has to agree with her,” Amell told reporters. “You could almost call Episode 19 Team Arrow versus Team Felicity: Felicity heading up Helix, Oliver heading up Team Arrow. Both after the same objective, but after it in different ways. It pushes us into a real exploration of why Oliver and Felicity have been behaving the way they’ve been behaving.”
Supergirl, Mondays, 8/7c, The CW
The Flash, Tuesdays, 8/7c, The CW
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Tuesdays, 9/8c, The CW
Arrow, Wednesdays, 8/7c, The CW
