DC Comics TV Updates: Musical Crossover for ‘The Flash’ and ‘Supergirl’, Plus ‘Arrow’ and ‘Legends’ News
It looks like things are about to get much more musical on the CW’s superhero series this fall.
At Thursday’s Television Critics Association press tour, executive producers from Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl gathered to tease what’s to come in each of the show’s new seasons.
The biggest piece of news was that a musical episode will cross between two of the series. “Yes, there will be a musical crossover,” said Greg Berlanti, exec producer of the so-called Arrow-verse. “There’s going to be a musical pair of episodes in the back half of the year with Supergirl and The Flash.” (He clarified that the musical crossover is not a part of the four-episode crossover happening later this year with all four DC Comics series.) The majority of the songs used will be mostly pre-existing songs and, he added, “we’re trying to write at least one original song per episode.”
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The musical inclusion in the shows isn’t completely a surprise given the musical background of many of the cast members across all shows. Grant Gustin and Melissa Benoist are both Glee alums and Jesse L. Martin was an original cast member of the hit Broadway musical Rent. Also, while the crossover will be between The Flash and Supergirl, don’t be surprised if cast members from the other shows appear, given the musical backgrounds of stars like Victor Garber (Legends) and John Barrowman (Arrow).
Berlanti, a self-proclaimed lover of musicals, explained how the singing might work in the episodes. “My sense is we’ll be very careful about how it is they kind of break into song. There’ll probably be an element of being in some character or characters’ head at the time just so we’re sort of being delicate in terms of how we navigate those waters but it’s many episodes away.” He also said the musical episodes would probably be around episodes 13 or 14 of The Flash and Supergirl.
Also announced, a character on one of the shows will be coming out of the closet, though producers are keeping details scarce. “It is a significant character,” Berlanti teased. “We really want the audience to enjoy the character developments, not necessarily be ahead of the storyline.”
In Supergirl casting, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg confirmed that new cast member Chris Wood is in fact playing iconic character, Mon-El, and executive producer Ali Adler announced that Sharon Leal will appear as Miss Martian.
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Other casting news, this time on Arrow, included the news that Dolph Lundgren (Rocky III) would appear in the Russia flashbacks as one of the big bads. On Legends, Lance Henriksen (Alien, Millennium) will be seen in the sixth as Obsidian, a member of the Justice Society of America.
In terms of storylines, Arrow‘s use of a flashback thread since the beginning of the series will be a part of the show a little longer. “This is the last year of the flashbacks,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim revealed. The Russia-based story this season will thematically tie the past and the present by showing Oliver (Stephen Amell) in training in Russia in the past while in the present day he will be training a new group of recruits to help fight crime in Star City, where he is now Mayor.
With Barry Allen (Gustin) going back in time in The Flash’s season finale and saving his mother’s life, Kreisberg teased that, “he’s created an alternative timeline where his mother is still alive, that is a seminal storyline from the comic books called Flashpoint and so that’s where The Flash picks up with Barry living in this new version of events and having to deal with both the benefits that that’s produced for him and also some of the costs.” Kreisberg confirmed that the events in the Flashpoint chapter on The Flash will indeed effect things on the other shows.
Legends will be headed in a new direction in its sophomore season, and executive producer Phil Klemmer said, “Our rag-tag bunch of time travelers who signed up for this one-off of saving the world now are left holding the bag.” While they aren’t exactly law enforcers, Klemmer said they “find themselves being the A-Team version of Time Masters, though they’re clearly the B-Team.”
Finally, while it was previously announced that Supergirl cast member Calista Flockhart would be moving to recurring status in the new season, there is a plan in how they’ll keep her character in the fold even if she’s not seen in every episode. “Calista is such a large presence on the show and such an important one to both us as writers and also to the characters,” Kreisberg said, “so taking her out definitely leaves a vacuum and watching different people try to fill her role is the story.” The producers also confirmed that the rumor that Batgirl could be coming to Supergirl is not true.
