The Arrow-verse crossover is set to be a game-changer this year, with Batwoman and Gotham City entering the multi-headed franchise for the first time for an "Elseworlds" good time. And now, fresh off the fantastic news of Netflix's Designated Survivor resurrection, star LaMonica Garrett is set to join the crossover as the mysterious DC Comics entity The Monitor. And there will be a special treat for comic book fans as well.
The official character description shared by the Arrow-verse producers says that LaMonica Garrett will be playing Mar Novu, the alien being also called The Monitor. He boasts infinite power, and wields it in strange ways, with his biggest comic book presence using him as a ringleader of sorts, gathering a team of heroes and villains to take on the devastatingly villainous Anti-Monitor. It's definitely hard to gauge just how hard The Flash, Arrow and Supergirl will be able to invest in the cosmic, multiverse-encompassing storytelling that a Monitor plot could require.
While we're obviously not sure yet how The Monitor will make his way into the lives of Oliver Queen, Barry Allen and Kara Danvers, his existence and his comic story are a huge arrow pointing back to the 2024 newspaper headline that has driven parts of The Flash's story since Season 1. In the article, it mentions the Scarlet Speedster disappearing into a crisis, which comic fans readily assume refers to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the gigantic comic arc that had the Anti-Monitor as its main villain. We can possibly expect a very pared-down version of that, with Monitor bringing the Earth-1 heroes together with Supergirl and Batwoman (from whatever Earth she resides on) to take on another entity of equally immense power. I'd expect a lot of offscreen fighting for that.
Along with the casting announcement came the news that artist George Pérez, who co-created the Monitor with writer Marv Wolfman, will be illustrating an exclusive sketch of the Monitor that will itself play a prominent role in the crossover. Is there a metahuman out there who can draw things and then make them come to life? That would be pretty amazing; I mean, if I had that power.
LaMonica Garrett is still an up-and-coming actor on the small screen, but he's definitely making all the right moves to cement his stardom. In 2016, he landed roles on both TNT's The Last Ship for its third season, and Designated Survivor for its debut season. Though he left the former, he remains the Secret Service team leader Mike Ritter on Designated Survivor, the political drama that spent part of the summer trying to find a new home after it was cancelled by ABC. Thankfully for devoted fans, Netflix stepped in renewed the show for Season 3 earlier this month. And now that he'll have a superhero-ish role on his resume, look for him to pop up everywhere else.
The Arrow-verse has been doing a lot of casting for the new seasons of its superhero dramas, with the crossovers themselves earning a lot of attention recently for the new character reveals. Beyond Ruby Rose as Batwoman herself, we've also got Lost and Justified vet Jeremy Davies as an Arkham Asylum doctor, and we can probably expect more before it's all said and done.
The Flash will kick off The CW's Arrow-verse crossover this year, starting on Sunday, December 9, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Arrow and Supergirl will fill out the remaining two episodes on Monday and Tuesday evening. To see what else your televisions have to offer in the coming months, head to our fall TV premiere schedule.
