Crisis On Infinite Earths: The Arrowverse EPs Gather To Explain The Shocking Ending Of Part 1
The CW

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not yet watched the first episode of The CW’s “Crisis On Infinite Earths” crossover, this contains a MASSIVE SPOILER, so either turn back now or proceed with caution.

Part 1 of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” culminated in a sad, but not unexpected sacrifice.  Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) died in order to ensure that roughly one billion people could escape the destruction of Earth-38, the home of Supergirl and Superman.  Since it has been hammered in since last year that Oliver was going to die, it wasn’t a complete shock, but it may have startled some that it came so early in this story.

Following the airing of “Crisis” Part 1, The CW’s Justice League of Executive Producers– Marc Guggenheim (all of the Arrowverse), Beth Schwartz (‘Arrow’), Keto Shimizu (‘Legends of Tomorrow’), Caroline Dries (‘Batwoman’) and Robert Rovner (‘Supergirl’)– sat down with Collider to unpack the events, including Oliver’s death.  Here is what they had to say.

 

RELATED:  “Crisis On Infinite Earths: Part One” Review

 

DRIES:

“The leads all have a different take on how to grieve or handle Oliver’s death. Some of them believe that it’s over. Some of them believe that they 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 their story for the episode.”

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ROVNER:

“For Kara, in addition to Oliver, she’s grieving the loss of her Earth, so she comes into it wanting to try to figure out how to fix what’s happened. That’s her journey, very much with Kate, not only in the Batwoman hour, but in the rest of the crossover.

 

GUGGENHEIM:

“Basically, it really came off of “Elseworlds,” which strongly suggested that Oliver was gonna die. And then, in the Arrow Season 7 finale, we told the audience that Oliver’s gonna 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? We’ve figured the audience is expecting that Oliver would die in the climax, in the fifth hour. So, if we go in the exact opposite direction and killed him off at the end of hour one, we accomplish two things. We, hopefully, do surprise the audience. That’s absolutely the intention. But we also really establish the stakes. Going into the next four hours, if Oliver Queen can die, then no one is safe.”

 

SHIMIZU:

“And it sets up really interesting stories and conflicts between all of these characters, these leads of these different shows, who have different ways of reacting to this tragedy. You get to see them all grieve together, in a really compelling way.”

 

Viewers will get their first look at how these heroes grief in Part 2 of “Crisis On Infinite Earths” tonight at 8 pm EST, on the ‘Batwoman’ installment.  The story continues tomorrow night, Tuesday, December 10, also at 8 pm, on ‘The Flash’.  After a winter break, “Crisis” wraps up on January 14, on ‘Arrow’ at 8 pm, and a special episode of ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ at 9 pm.

What do you think of the story so far?  Were you shocked or upset by the death of Oliver Queen so early in the event?