When it came time to pick a threat to unite The CW's array of superheroes -- Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow and DC's Legends of Tomorrow -- the writing team behind the four DC shows knew it couldn't be a run-of-the-mill villain. The instigators for uniting the network's crime-fighting, alien-busting, metahuman-subduing heroes needed to be something the Arrowverse had never deal with before.
"We all collectively wanted the superheroes to face an external threat. And by external, I don't mean extraterrestrial; I mean not a Big Bad from one of the shows. Rather, a threat that came from outside of the shows," explained executive producer Marc Guggenheim following an "Invasion!" screening event.
It was Arrowverse executive producer Greg Berlanti who had the idea of bringing Keith Giffen, Bill Mantlo and Todd Macfarlane's 1988 three-issue comic arc "Invasion!" to the small screen as this year's four-show crossover, with the Dominators and their quest to eliminate the threat posed by metahumans as the unifiers for the Arrowverse's superheroes.
"Greg just walked in one day and was like, 'Let's do Invasion,'" recalled Guggenheim while conducing the Q&A wth fellow EP Andrew Kreisberg. "I think we both had the exact same twin reactions: that's totally awesome and oh my God, how the hell are we going to do that? I'm a big fan of that particular series and I'm a big Bill Mantlo fan. That was Bill Mantlo's first work for DC Comics after decades at Marvel, so that particular series looms very large in my personal estimation."
"Invasion!" comics cover
The Dominators made their debut in Tuesday's The Flash's episode "Invasion!" (The subsequent episodes of Arrow and DC's Legends of Tomorrow are also called "Invasion!"; Supergirl's fall finale, "Medusa," served as her point of entry into Earth-1 to help fight the Dominators there.)
The Arrowverse writers have successfully turned the Dominators into a justifiable reason to bring all four shows together: Supergirl's needed because she is an alien who is knowledgable about these particular enemies, the Legends can help better understand the last time the Dominators visited Earth thanks to their time travel capabilities, and both Teams Flash and Arrow have a diverse array of capable heroes who are able to understand and counter just about every imaginable threat.
Once the shows had their villain, the challenge for the writing teams was not only believably mixing all four TV series' different tones together, but also making sure the alien connection didn't permanently alter the DNA of those shows.
"What’s so nice about the shows, for us, is each of the show has their own identity. Especially this season, it feels like every show has sort of doubled down on what it’s about," said Kreisberg. "I think that’s what makes the shows feel different, so you’re not watching four hours of the same stuff every week. You’re really getting a different flavor and different world. Whereas now that possibility is open because they’ve faced aliens, there’s certainly no plans to have an ongoing or bring up an alien storyline on Arrow. That really feels like the purview of Supergirl."
Arrow might not be facing aliens again in the near future, but here's a tease: this crossover isn't the last audiences will see of the Dominators in this TV season. "The Dominators will return on Supergirl later this season," Kreisberg promised.
What did you think of the first episode of "Invasion!"? Do you think it's a good fit for the four-show crossover? Let us know in the comments below!
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire