While there is still one upcoming DC show on The CW – Superman and Lois, which will return this fall on the 2024 TV schedule – the heyday of superhero shows on this network is long gone. Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning and Batwoman dominated the network’s programming between 2012 and 2023, and they’d occasionally come together for epic crossovers, creating quite an interconnected world. However, those Arrowverse moments were not easy to make, and a producer got real about just how challenging it was to coordinate this television universe and their crossover events.
Marc Guggenheim, who served as the co-creator of Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow and an executive producer on Supergirl, The Flash and Batwoman, got real about the headache-inducing logistics of planning crossovers on Multiverse of Color. He said these events were some of the hardest things to do when it came to these shows, and explained why, saying:
Sometimes the biggest challenge, honestly, was the crossovers. And you know, again, this was something that hadn’t been done during this era of television. It hadn’t been done on the scale that we were attempting it. That was again a very good example of us learning on the job. There was certainly a struggle of, ‘How much money are we going to spend on these things?’ They get expensive very very fast.
Adding to that, he broke down everything they had to consider when creating crossovers. They were dealing with multiple casts, crews, budgets and stories (among many other things), and it was a massive puzzle to solve, as he said:
For production reasons, for scheduling reasons, time on location, actor fees, you name it, they’re not cheap. We always got the support and encouragement we needed. Even when it was like, ‘OK it’s your funeral.’
He went on to say that there was a lot of trust between him, other producers and executives working on these massive shows, which helped. However, that does not diminish just how complicated these are.
Not only are there multiple complex storylines to figure out and integrate into one big story, but logistically, it sounds like a nightmare. He specifically cited “Crisis on Earth-X” – which aired in 2017 as a crossover of Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, and was actually almost a “seamless movie” – as a particularly difficult one. This was because the cast had to play both their characters and their evil doppelgangers, doubling the screen time of all the actors.
Guggenheim then laid out some of those behind-the-scenes challenges they had to handle across the years when they were creating these massive crossovers. Using “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and a scene that involved tons of characters as his example -- which was a crossover between Supergirl, Batwoman, The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, and left many debating if it was the best or worst thing to happen to the Arrowverse -- he said:
Every single actor had to sign off and every single actor had to be compensated. Which meant that I had to negotiate – I forget how many deals it was – call it 15 different actor deals. And each time it was like, I had to set a rate and hold to it. If one actor wanted more then I wouldn’t be treating all the actors fairly. If one actor wanted more than I had budgeted it would suddenly become: multiply that over 15 actors. You start to see the problem. That was a labor of love, but man I was like on the phone constantly. I had a little spreadsheet.
Earlier in the interview, the producer explained that they’d schedule the shows so each one would have a day where they’d shut down so the cast could go work on a different series. He also noted that over time they got better at scheduling out and planning these episodes. However, it's still a stressful amount to juggle no matter how much practice you've had.
Adding to the complications, Guggenheim pointed out that when they were constructing these television events, they’d have to talk with every showrunner for each show, work out rights for footage from different DC projects and convince actors to say yes:
There were some actors who really needed to be talked into it. I had to talk to every showrunner. Getting Swamp Thing was really tricky, because the show had been canceled by that point. Footage from the Green Lantern movie, you name it. It was challenging.
I also haven’t even brought up the scheduling challenges that came out of weather issues (because these shows were filmed in Vancouver) and problems with CGI and special effects...
All this is to say, these multi-show events were spectacular and a major moment in modern network television history. Understanding the work that went into them behind the scenes honestly makes them even better.
To go back and see these epic crossovers, you can stream Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow with a Netflix subscription. Various other DC shows, including some of the Arrowverse, like Batwoman, can be viewed with a Max subscription. And if you do go back to view these wild television events, make sure to give them a little extra appreciation now that you know just how hard they were to create.
