The first hour of "Crisis On Infinite Earths" is in the books
and there is a lot to talk about,
from killer crossovers to unexpected partnerships
to the death of Green Arrow
to the birth of a new Green Arrow, man.
The highs, the lows, and everything in between,
all that and more right now on "Crisis Aftermath".
- Synced and corrected by Firefly - - www.subtitulamos.tv -
Welcome to "Crisis Aftermath".
I'm your host Kevin Smith.
Boy, oh, boy, man.
We knew that this year's crossover event
was gonna be something special,
but this is beyond bonkers, man.
Here to help me figure it all out
are executive producer Marc Guggenheim,
writer, comedian, and DC nerd Dani Fernandez,
and "Arrow" star Kat McNamara.
Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.
I just wanna ask right off the bat,
and you don't count 'cause you wrote this.
What were your favorite moments so far?
Oh, goodness, there are so many.
I mean, mine was when Mia got her... her suit.
I mean, it was so precious. It was such a precious moment.
- I said... - You're not just saying it
- 'cause she's sitting there. It was a legit good moment. - No, no.
I say it because I talk a lot about father/daughter moments in therapy.
And so I said it like, you know,
this is a safe place in front of millions of people.
- So I don't mind openly weeping. - For sure.
I mean, that was one of my favorite moments to shoot, definitely.
Just because Stephen and I have spent most of the season together.
- Right. - And getting to watch him work
and being a part of the story, this being my first crossover,
that was such a big moment, I think, for both characters,
- and we really felt that. - Do you watch him?
How does one play the daughter of somebody
who's been playing a guy for, like, many seasons?
Do you actually go back, watch episodes,
and be like, "I can steal that. I can steal that".
That's exactly what I did. When I first auditioned,
I didn't know that I was auditioning for his daughter.
And once I found that out, I went back and watched the entire series
because not only is he such an iconic character,
- but Felicity Smoak is another iconic character. - Totally.
And Mia is sort of the perfect amalgamation of them both.
And I tried to steal as many little nuances
and character quirks as I could
to really make her her own person.
You nailed it. Let me ask you this, Marc.
You are the architect of all this madness,
so you definitely have a favorite moment.
I would say in Hour One
when Lois and Kal-El place baby Jonathan in the rocket ship.
And I remember, we were in the writers' room...
we assemble a writers' room for the crossover,
and we were in the writers' room,
and I forget who pitched it. It wasn't me.
I wish I could take credit for it, but I love it.
I love it for two reasons.
Number one, it's homaging, obviously, Alexander Luthor
being launched, you know, in a rocket ship.
Baby Alexander Luthor being launched in a rocket ship
- in the first Crisis. - From "Crisis". From the book.
But also,
Kal-El and Lois are speaking Marlon Brando's dialogue
From "Superman: The Movie".
How fun was that? To be able to...
and was that the marching orders in the writers' room?
Like, homage or as other people say "steal",
- Yes. - as much from other sources as possible.
You know, it's funny. What was so great was
no one ever had to be told it.
We all just instinctively were like,
"Okay, we're gonna steal this and we're gonna steal this.
And we're gonna homage that
and we're gonna tip our hats to this".
And it was just something we all...
we've been doing it, honestly, ever since year one of "Arrow".
- Yeah. - It's always been part of
the DNA of all these shows.
But, yeah, I mean, because this is Crisis and because it's the...
you know, one of the biggest DC events ever,
we felt an obligation to really like go for it.
All Arrowverse shows have always been about incredible fan service,
but this especially feels like, "They're gonna love this".
So we're all still reeling from an incredible hour of television.
But that hour was months and years,
and actually decades in the making, man.
Check it out.
- Cut. - So a day in the life
of shooting this crossover is absolutely staggering.
In terms of the amount of cast that's coming in
and people from other shows,
there's so much logistically that goes into it,
and everybody just has to be on it.
This Crisis is such a big deal.
So many actors, so many lines, so many characters,
so many moving pieces.
You get picked up so early in the morning
and you have to go through hair and makeup,
and then we start acting. And then, you know,
halfway through a day, you get driven to a different show.
- Action! - Everyone works very differently.
Every production has its own kind of culture
and way of working.
And when you work with actors from a different production,
you get to see ways, you know, that they may do things better
or that we may do things better.
And so it's a great learning experience.
Cut! Awesome.
Come on, man.
Like, just seeing that many people walking around in costume...
when I was a kid, you dreamed about that.
Like, we had Batman and Robin growing up
with the great Burt Ward and Adam West.
And when you saw those two in their outfits, it made you excited.
You dreamed about it.
I remember there was a "TV Guide" cover from 1989
- when the John Wesley Shipp "Flash" was on... - Yeah.
... that showed a picture of him in the outfit
next to a picture of Michael Keaton
in the Batman outfit from movies
next to Christopher Reeve wearing the Superman suit.
And you dreamed, like, will there ever be a day
where you can see something like this?
And we're literally seeing it here unfold in front of us.
It's insanity. I mean, the ten-year-old me still can't believe it.
I mean, the fact that anyone has done this, much less us...
the fact that anyone's done this is so exciting to me.
It scratches every itch as a fanboy I have.
And that's the thing, like,
you were talking about, like, you know, the fan service.
The reason these shows are so fan service oriented is we're fans.
We approach it as fans.
So even, yes, of course,
in the writers' room we're talking about, like,
"Oh, this is gonna make them stand up and applaud".
But before we get there,
we're standing up and applauding ourselves.
- Right. - "Oh, my God, this is gonna be so awesome".
You must be sitting there going,
"Oh, we're so clever!"
I did have a question, though,
because Burt Ward and Robert Wuhl are in this.
Does that mean that their movies and shows
- are canonically a part of this universe? - Yeah.
That's the whole point.
Like, and they're now canonically destroyed.
- But... - Yeah.
We had 'em for a second, and then gone.
So the Bat nipples existed in this universe.
- Yes. - Yes.
The Bat nipples are Arrowverse canon.
And it was CW. We always knew nipples were involved somewhere.
So, absolutely, man.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room, though.
- The death of Arrow. - Yes.
Let's take a look.
It's okay, Sara.
This is my destiny.
- Oliver. - Barry?
You, my friend,
are the very best of us.
I gave it all up
for you and Kara.
Mm.
- Whew! - What was going through your head, man,
when you're sitting there watching that scene,
when you're watching history happen?
Indeed, that was a historic moment in many ways
for me, personally. It was my first day on set
with everyone in the suits.
It was my first day wearing my suit on set.
So I was so excited.
We were just talking about how, you know,
much we all are fans of this and how exciting that is.
So I was over the moon excited.
Then I get to set and I realize,
"Oh, now I have to cry over my dying father".
Okay, let me reframe my entire headspace.
- But it was... - It's weird, 'cause it's not an outfit
that's conducive to crying over a dead father.
- No. - Because it makes you feel action orientated
- and wanna play. - Right, you're ready to go.
And all of a sudden, they're like, "Cry.
- Be dramatic". - Exactly. Also I have the...
you know, the Stephen Amell special boots
that are actually Nike sneakers in...
- sneakers inside the... - Inside of the boot.
- the superhero boots. - That's the trick.
- So you feel like bouncing around anyway. - Right, right.
But it was so wonderful, and Stephen killed it.
And everybody really came together,
because, you know, Stephen in a sense was the beginning
of this entire universe.
He's the spine. If you were gonna make an analogy
to another cinematic universe
- or something like that... - Yes.
he's the Robert Downey, Jr. of this universe.
- Exactly. Exactly. - Very strong spine upon which
all those other shows sprang.
Right, and what's so great
about that is everybody really came together to honor him
and the work he's done to build everything else in that moment.
And Stephen absolutely killed it,
so we were all a mess.
Marc, you've been there with "Arrow" since day one.
It's unfair to say did you always know you were gonna kill him?
But was there always an idea that when he goes, he goes?
Yeah, I think, you know... it's funny.
Stephen Amell and I have talked about this
numerous times over the years.
And we were always of the same opinion,
which is Oliver's journey has to end with his death.
So, it was always... that was always where we were headed.
I think, you know, the type of guy Oliver was
before he marooned on Lian Yu, like, he was a jerk.
And I've always sort of seen "Arrow" as a redemption story.
And, you know, this is...
he makes the ultimate sacrifice for the ultimate redemption.
The challenge that we sort of had
as we were figuring out the crossover was,
basically a year ago with Elseworlds,
we basically said to the audience, "Oliver's gonna die".
- Yeah. - So you may not be surprised he's dying,
but you're certainly surprised he's dying this fast.
Yeah, you're like, "What? Now?" Heavens.
- End of Hour One? - Yeah.
You're crazy!
- There's four more hours to go. - That handoff to Mia
was a really special moment,
where you get presented the suit.
And that's everything in this world, man.
The hero passing on the mantle
to somebody else, or giving them
their true identity? That's everything.
Let's take a look at that scene right now.
You wanted to see me?
I did.
I have something for you.
What is it?
Only one way to find out.
Okay, please tell me you were planning on wearing this.
I don't think that that one would fit me.
There should always be at least one Green Arrow.
Come on, man!
You don't even have to have a daughter
in real life to find that incredibly moving.
These shows have always been about family.
Either the family you come from or the family that you make.
What do you think, man?
Does Mia want this responsibility?
You know, that's been the toughest kind of struggle
for Mia throughout her entire process of being involved in this.
You know, she was raised in a world
- in which vigilantes were villainized. - Mm.
And she's come full circle with that, having met her father
and kind of gotten a look into the difficult choices he's had to make.
But now she's been through
and worked through all of these issues
and has a wonderful relationship with her father.
She doesn't want the responsibility
because she doesn't want to lose him.
- Right. - She knows she can take it on.
She knows she's ready for it.
But she's finally filled
the one missing piece of her life
and doesn't want to lose that.
And that's kind of the tragedy is that,
yes, there always needs to be one Green Arrow,
but there's only one Green Arrow.
So she knows that that's coming to an end, and that's...
it's difficult, you know? But also it's...
Stephen has been so instrumental into passing the torch
both on and off-screen in a sense,
and so that scene meant so much to both of us.
I think we were both a little emotional in that moment.
Did you have to learn how to shoot fake arrows?
I did. I did. I mean, I... you know,
I did archery in Girl Scout camp when I was a kid, but...
Don't brag, man.
- I'm saying, like, a day or two. - Fair enough.
It's nothing like this. But we have an amazing
archery coach on the show who's a master archer,
and she's the one who trained Stephen.
So as soon as I was on the show they said,
"All right, you have to learn this, too,
'cause eventually you're gonna get there".
So, I went and trained with her
and she is the ultimate badass.
I tell you, she taught me everything I needed to know.
And there are a few scenes, though,
where Oliver and Mia do a little bit of training,
and that's actually coming up very shortly.
- We get to see that. - You do get to see that.
It's such a wonderful moment
that really bonds the two of them.
Because Mia initially was trained by Nyssa al Ghul,
who also kind of trained Oliver in a way,
and it's a full circle.
I remember the end of season two,
Katrina Law, we're in the big tunnel fight.
Nyssa al Ghul was firing arrows like this.
And I'm like, "Katrina, you're killing me.
Seriously, every time you do that
you're spending thousands of dollars.
Just a little slower.
Just a little bit. Help me out".
- You know. - Well, that's funny,
because when I was on "Supergirl", it was very different.
They said, "Oh, just fire a couple shots here and a couple shots here".
I'm used to being on "Arrow", I said, "Okay, well how many?
'Cause I know there's..."
And they go, "Oh, it doesn't matter. Just as many as you can".
They're like, "This is Krypton, kid.
- We got all the money". - All right, I'll just fire off all the arrows.
I want to thank Kat for joining us.
You did a great job on the show, did a great job on the panel.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much, man.
When we come back, we're gonna meet The Monitor
and map out the Multiverse.
All that and more on "Crisis Aftermath".
Don't quiver "Arrow" fans. We'll be write back.
Welcome back to "Crisis Aftermath".
I'm Kevin Smith. As we've mentioned,
"Crisis On Infinite Earths" is one of the biggest
events in TV history.
But just in case you still don't grasp the scale and scope,
here's what the show's stars have to say about it.
- Check it out. - Action.
It's huge.
We've never seen anything like this on television.
- Yeah, it's big. - It's insane.
Unfeasable, unthinkable, absurd, outlandish!
I never thought in a million years
that they would be able to do a "Crisis On Infinite Earths".
Take cover!
I don't know if you can actually technically get bigger than
"Crisis On Infinite Earths".
I can handle it.
Every hero imaginable is here.
It's massive.
We are making television history.
This is never gonna happen again.
Mm. Lots of things are never gonna happen again.
Joining us now is the man responsible
for the biggest Crisis ever.
The Monitor himself, LaMonica Garrett, man.
- How are you? - I'm good, man.
- Thanks for having me. - Thank you for being here.
The Monitor is arguably one
of the most important characters in the DC universe, okay?
How do you handle
the pressure of playing a part that big?
As a DC fan, it's easy to get caught up in the magnitude
of who he is and what his presence means.
But as the actor, I got to focus on his objective
and just going after what he needs and what he wants.
And how is that... like, as an actor?
Normally you play the objective in a normal world.
- This guy's objective is cosmic. - It's more than global.
It's cosmic. It's universes.
It's the biggest thing I've ever tackled,
but it's been awesome.
What was it like strapping on the costume?
It was constricting.
Yeah, constricting and, uh...
yeah, it... aesthetics first.
- Yeah, welcome... - As long as it looked...
as long as it looked the part, it was good.
Welcome to the superhero game,
where your movement is very limited.
- What movement? - Yes.
As The Monitor, man, you're pretty much constantly pissing people off.
Let's take another look at a pivotal moment with you.
Check it out.
I spared your friends' lives
so they could save their world last year.
This is a very different threat.
You need to stop playing games with me.
You tell me why the Anti-Monitor is doing this.
And then tell me how I'm gonna prevent it.
Not knowing what you are fighting
means you'll prepare for every possibility.
Because this threat brings with it
the annihilation of all life in all realities.
Do you now comprehend the scope
of the danger we all now face?
Something so interesting about The Monitor
is you never know how much you can trust him, man.
Like, how do you approach playing that?
I think the writers take more credit that...
you know, than me,
but they write it well. They write him well.
But I think anyone that shows up
delivering that much bad news with a straight face,
you're not going to trust them too much.
Let me ask you this. When you got cast
did you go out and get the "Crisis" issues?
Like, 'cause Monitor's on a lot of the covers and whatnot.
- Yeah. - Were you like, "It's me!"
I didn't know I got cast as The Monitor at first.
- Really? - Yeah, Marc had to tell me after the fact.
But I didn't who I was reading for.
- Not after you shot the crossover. - No, no, no.
"Guess what? You were The Monitor".
But I got "Crisis"...
I was familiar with it as a fan.
And when I knew I was The Monitor, I went back, got it, reread it.
And then when I was... found out I was playing the Anti-Monitor,
I went back and reread it again with a fresh set of eyes.
- So, yeah. - Very, very cool, man.
With all the suiting up that was going on on set,
was there any sort of like, "Hey, no pictures. No pictures"?
We're always saying, "No pictures. No pictures".
And if anyone's been on Twitter,
- you know how successful we were. - Yeah.
- All pictures, all pictures! - All pictures all the time.
Is there anything you could tell us about The Monitor's backstory
that maybe we didn't get from the show?
Actually, you know, one of the fun things that we're doing...
This is a spoiler.
This is something we haven't told anybody,
is we're gonna open Hour Four,
which is the "Arrow" hour, which is come...
it's not even on until January.
Yeah, 2020 we gotta wait for that.
We open with basically the mother of all flashbacks.
And we basically do the secret origin of The Monitor
- and the Anti-Monitor. Yeah. - Really?
And actually that whole sequence,
the first draft of it was actually written by Marv Wolfman.
- Get out of here. Really? - Yeah. Yeah.
Has he been working on the shows
or did you just pull him in for Crisis?
We pulled him in for the "Arrow" hour.
He and I co-wrote the "Arrow" hour.
So it... like, for all of us who are like,
"Oh, my God, I can't believe they're doing Crisis".
His mind must be bent.
He is... he's just been so fantastic and so enthusiastic.
And, you know, he came in and met with all the writers
across all the superhero shows
and just sort of held court for two hours
just telling us all about the history of "Crisis",
the history of DC comics, you name it.
It was like getting a master class in superheroes
from, obviously, one of the masters.
Dani, when did "Crisis" come into your life?
As a DC fan, it didn't come in
to my collecting until a few years into my collecting
when somebody was like, "Hey, you know they got to one universe?"
Then I went back and read it. When did you fall in?
It wasn't until I was an adult.
And even then, I think I had...
like, I didn't fully grasp the magnitude of it.
I'm very fascinated to hear about his origin.
I think it would be funny if they just wrote in,
like, the teenage years of The Monitor.
Even though I know that's like not...
but that would be hilarious. I think, just, you know...
The kids in high school did give him a lot of crap
for his mutton chops as I recall.
- Yeah. - But oddly enough, not the outfit.
The outfit they were fine with.
The outfit was totally... it's funny.
Actually, we give you... in that origin story,
we give you an explanation for the outfit.
- Really? - Yeah. Yeah.
What themes were you focused on in Crisis?
What did you want to bring out the most in the storytelling?
Sacrifice and redemption.
I mean, and pretty much...
- Jeez, I wonder who that smells like. - I know where...
- where did that come from? - Yeah.
But, like, you know, every character is sort of dealing with that.
And I think one of the other sort of subthemes
is the concept of passing the torch.
- Mm-hmm. - And it's not just the passing of the torch
from Oliver to Mia.
It's, you know... you'll sort of see.
I don't wanna spoil too much, but there's a lot of, you know,
passing of the torch and keeping the flame alive
that goes throughout the entire five-hour event.
Uh, I don't know what anyone told you,
but we brought you here to spoil things.
So don't be hiding things.
As you can see, the Multiverse is vast and complex,
and a lot of people are intimidated by that, man.
But we're going to show you all how simple
and straightforward it really is.
We brought in Chancellor Agard from "Entertainment Weekly"
to walk us through the state of the Multiverse.
Chancellor, bring out your pointer, man!
Well, the Multiverse is down six Earths after this episode,
including Earth 2, which faded to dust
in the "Arrow" season eight premiere.
Tonight, we started on Earth 89.
- So, wait hold on. It's gone. - Gone. It's gone already.
- Okay. - So we started on Earth 89,
- where we saw Robert Wuhl... - Robert Wuhl's back!
- ... from the Tim Burton movies. - And then?
- Gone. - Gone.
Presumably along with Michael Keaton.
From there, we traveled across the cameo-verse
to Earth 9, home of DC Universe's "Titans"...
- And? - ... in the first ever...
- oh, that's gone, too, yeah. - In the first ever Arrowverse
crossover with a streaming show.
But they're dead already, so...
Gone. What was the point?
From there, Earth X went next,
and then Earth 66 was the next to go, along with Burt Ward
who played Robin in the classic Batman series
- from 1966. - So absolutely cruel.
Holy dead, Robin.
And then the anti-matter wave started traveling towards Argo,
which is where Superman, Lois Lane, baby Jonathan,
and Supergirl's mom Alura were living.
But she's dead now.
Luckily, Clark and Lois aren't, though,
because the Harbinger teleported them to Earth 38.
And then baby Jonathan zipped off in an escape pod.
At the same time, Harbinger then traveled to Earth 1,
where she collected Oliver,
Mia, Ray, Sara, Kate, Barry,
and brought them all over to Earth 38.
Meanwhile, Sara, Lois, and Brainy travel to Earth 16
to find baby Jonathan,
who was in a future version of Star City
with old man Oliver Queen.
After all that, though, Earth 38 was still wiped out
by the Anti-Monitor.
Luckily, though, our heroes managed
to save about a couple billion people and themselves
and bring them all the way back to Earth 1,
which is where we left them.
Okay. That covers everything.
- Everything, yeah. - Give it up for Chancellor.
That was excellent. Pretty damn amazing.
All right, man, I'm sweating.
That was a lot to take in, man.
Before we go further, I want to thank
LaMonica Garrett for joining us.
Excellent job.
When we return, we mourn our fallen heroes
and hear some very interesting fan predictions.
Back in a flash with more "Crisis Aftermath".
Welcome back, my dear super friends.
This is "Crisis Aftermath", and I'm Kevin Smith.
We are delighted to have the executive producer
of "Supergirl" Robert Rovner here with us.
- How you doing, Robert? - I'm super.
You got... oh, my Lord.
Well-written. Like all great sagas,
families are central to the DC Universe,
especially its most famous couple,
Superman and Lois Lane.
Tonight, they had their world completely upended.
Let's look.
Quickly, with me.
We must set a course for Earth.
Hopefully they'll have enough time
to stop this wave before it hits.
Where are the rest?
There are no others. Only this one.
You know, it seems like Kryptonians are always sending their kids
off in a space pod.
Is this just a rite of passage at this point?
Is this what they do?
Nobody ever told them, like, there could be another plan.
They should've... they should've prepared more, built some more pods.
- True. - But, unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.
The whole planet should just be a series of pods ready to go
at any moment so everyone could leave.
But, no, it's always just big enough for a baby.
What was it like to kind of jump back and re-examine
a moment that is huge, iconic in comic book history,
but then put through this different prism?
Very daunting for us to... you know, wanted to pay homage
to the canon and to... you know, we're all...
a lot of our inspiration comes from the Donner movies,
and so we wanted to pay homage to that as well.
We're really excited to have this opportunity
to show it through Kal-El's eyes
and to do it with Kal-El and Lois.
It's always nice to include Superman, but, like,
the inability to play with the Superman IP
is kind of where "Supergirl" came from.
And you guys built something really wonderful.
In a world where it's like, "Oh, we can't touch the big guy.
We can tell every Superman story we ever dreamed about telling
through the prism of Supergirl".
And in doing so, expanded and diversified the Arrowverse.
What do we see happening for the Maiden of Might
in the rest of the series here?
Is she... like the cover of one
of the very famous issues of "Crisis On Infinite Earths",
is she gonna be winding up in somebody's arms lifeless?
- I can't give any spoilers. - Come on, Robert!
She has a very emotional journey in the rest of Crisis.
You know, I think one of the things that happens
in this hour, she sees Argo destroyed.
And so she really is on a mission to try and save that.
You know, she's always a character that's full of a lot of hope,
and so she wants to, you know,
both stop the inevitable
and correct what the Anti-Monitor is up to,
- which is not good. - Can I just say
this moment with Clark and Lois when he was like,
"Where's the other ships?" And she's like,
"There aren't any". I was like, "Oh, no!"
I was like, "Can they just win once and awhile?"
This man is so selfless.
Like, he went off to have his family on another planet.
Like, just let him have this moment.
Of course, they came back, but...
I also think I'm excited because in the comics,
Alexander, you know, actually has some part.
And I know that Jonathan stays a baby.
But I'm like, "There's no way this super baby isn't popping in".
Like, even if it's just to, like, punch...
punch someone,
I'm sure the super baby will pop up somewhere.
All the heroes in the Arrowverse
are all these such strong leads,
but you guys got some gold in Tyler.
Tyler is absolutely wonderful.
We caught up with Tyler, AKA Clark Kent,
and got his thoughts on the Man of Steel
becoming the dad of steel. Check it out.
Hi. Jonathan really has your eyes, huh?
I'll take it.
It's a new realization, I think,
for him of how fragile life really is,
and not because he's afraid of losing his,
but he's afraid of not being there for his son.
So it's definitely something new to take on
and a new perspective to look at the world through,
but it's been a fun challenge.
How does being a father affect Superman?
I think it really raises the stakes for him.
You know, not only is he trying
to protect the universe for his son, but he really,
I think, feels much more deeply
what he could lose.
They've lost their baby
in time and space many, many times.
Should Lois and Clark also lose custody?
- I would say no. - I don't think Kryptonians
should ever be allowed to have children.
Because they don't know what to do with them.
They're like, "Hey, there's an earthquake".
"Let's throw the baby into space!"
I also love that they send them to humans.
Like, he's actually super powered,
but they're giving this super powered
little individual to the least responsible people that can handle it.
"This will work out. Send him to primates".
"Crisis On Infinite Earths" may have just begun,
but we already have to say some good-byes, man.
Let's take a moment to pay tribute
to all those humans, metahumans,
and entire civilizations that we lost tonight.
You, my friend,
are the very best of us.
Holy crimson skies of death!
Robert, I want to thank you so much for joining us,
giving us a little of the inside dirt, man.
Don't go anywhere because when we come back
we'll get the scoop on the Arrowverse's
newest hero Batwoman.
We were Krypton long before we were Krypt-off.
Stick around for more "Crisis Aftermath".
Hello and welcome back to "Crisis Aftermath",
one of an infinite number
of "Crisis On Infinite Earths" aftershows currently airing
in the known universes.
I'm one of your infinite number of hosts,
Kevin Smith prime.
When we first see Batwoman,
she's busy kicking people's butts in Gotham.
So when Harbinger teleports her to Earth 38
to help prevent the destruction of the Multiverse,
it's a little disorientating. Let's look.
Kara, where are we and what just happened?
- Um... - You're on Earth 38.
There was...
That rabbit was about to talk.
This one speaks to rabbits.
It's okay. We're all on the same side.
Are we? 'Cause I don't know them.
But you know me.
And if you were brought here with all these other heroes,
it's probably because we need you.
I trust everyone in this room with my life, including you.
Well, I guess you should all just call me Kate.
Oh, that's awesome! Joining us now
is the showrunner of CW's "Batwoman", Caroline Dries.
- Man, how are you? - I'm good, thank you.
So good to have you here. What's going on
in Batwoman's life before she's called in for this giant epic?
Yeah, Batwoman has been spending most of the season
trying to convince herself and everyone that she loves
that her sister Alice,
who's the big villain of the season,
that she can be redeemed,
that there's some humanity left in her.
- And that's her Joker. - Yeah.
That's sort of like her crazy, maniacal Joker counterpart,
and it's also her twin sister.
And so Batwoman is convinced, "Look, I can save her.
She's worth the time. She's good.
She's got good deep down in her".
And in the last episode before Crisis,
Alice does the unthinkable.
She kills somebody very close to Kate
and proves that she actually probably isn't redeemable.
And right now as Kate's entering this Crisis,
she's starting to wonder, you know,
"Should I put my hope in humanity? Is it worth it?
Am I capable of bringing out the good in people?
What am I actually doing?"
How does she feel amongst these superpowered individuals,
as someone who is fighting without superpowers?
Yeah, it's tricky.
You know, I think of being a superhero
when you have the fate of the world
riding on your shoulders,
it's mostly about just showing up to fight the fight.
And does she know if a batarang's going to work on a shadow demon?
You know? She's never done it before.
But that's what makes her special,
is that she's willing to do it.
Anybody who loves to play in this field
- dreams about playing with Gotham City IP. - Yes.
What has it been like to run around
- and do what you want with Gotham City? - It is such a gift.
Obviously, Gotham is the second biggest character on our show,
and we've had such a fun time tapping into
some of the more familiar characters and villains.
And we're also conscientious
that the audience has a certain expectation
when they see these bad guys
that they've seen a million times
- and they want a little spin on it. - Right.
And we wanna try to tell stories that haven't been seen before.
So there's just such a vast encyclopedia of characters,
and they're all so weird and colorful.
And the fun part about Gotham is that the crazy
is built into the DNA of the city.
So she's going up against these villains
who are just as strong as she is.
Has there... and this is just inside baseball.
Has there been any villain that they're like,
- "You can't touch that?" - Uh, yes.
A lot, right?
- Yeah. - I imagine you can speak to that as well.
I'm sure that...
I'm sure there's no billion dollar movie
of a character that, uh,
is related to this decision at all.
Still, like, you know,
the fact of the matter is the Arrowverse has proven
that you can do big budget storytelling
with vast cast, just as adventurous,
just as... it captures the imagination
as they do in the cinema.
And it seems to me from the outside,
in the beginning it was very,
"You can only use this guy and this guy,
and don't even reference this stuff".
It seems to be loosening up.
I always look at it as the glass is half full.
We never in a million years
when we first started the Arrowverse,
thought we were ever...
Superman, Batwoman, Gotham City?
Forget about it.
So, it's all a gift.
I want to thank Caroline Dries for coming to join us.
Thank you for representing Gotham
- in the Arrowverse. - Thank you.
It's a big thing, big thing.
And when we come back, I go head to head
against my podcast cohost
and primary life rival Marc Bernardin
in a game of DC trivia.
Keep it right here, man.
Same bat time, same bat channel.
Hello, and welcome back to "Crisis Aftermath".
Joining us here on the stage of destiny
is my friend and Fat Man Beyond cohost
Mark Bernardin. Welcome, Mark.
- Hey! - How are you?
- I'm amazing. - Now, it's confusing
for the home viewer, because Dani's in my seat now.
That's because she's gonna be the games master
for a little competition
we like to call Crisis: After Feud.
Thank you, Kevin. I am going to ask
a series of trivia questions
about the DC Universe.
If you have an answer, please raise your specially made Crisis paddle
and I'll call on you.
- Trash talking is encouraged. - Oh, thank God.
Extra points will be assigned for making the other person cry.
Whoa. I brought tissues.
The winner will be awarded the prize of never shutting up about it.
So, gentlemen, are you ready?
- Yes! - All right, first question.
_
You might've wanted to work up to the hard ones, Dani.
- Yes, Marc. - Scientific Technical Advanced Research?
- Oh, yeah, but there's an "A" in there, friend. - Advanced.
Oh, yeah, you said that. Okay, never mind. Sorry.
- Did I get a point? - Yeah, you got it.
- Spelling! - How did you know that?
- All right, all right. Moving on, moving on. - I made it up.
- This is multiple choice. - Yes.
_
- Is it... - _
Ooh.
- Marc. - Green Lantern.
- That is incorrect. - Oh.
You can steal, Kevin. Yes.
- Uh, I'm gonna go Dr. Fate. - Oh, you're both wrong!
- Boy, we're idiots. - It is Wonder Woman. Diana Prince herself.
You know, that just shows our gender bias, doesn't it?
Yeah, it does.
- You all should've known. - I'm like, "Had to be a man invented the Multiverse".
Apparently not.
_
Um...
Fortress of Desolation? No, I don't know.
- Apokolips? - No.
It is Kaznia. Okay, okay.
Dani, this is really depressing.
This is all I got in life is knowing about this stuff,
and I don't know it anymore.
For the record, I'm winning.
- Yeah, you are. - True.
You should be hosting this thing.
Really making me look bad.
Okay...
_
I'm gonna say 97. Earth 97.
Can you please raise your paddle, sir?
Earth 97.
That is correct.
- Yes! - That is correct.
- I remember the '90s. - And I remember those nipples.
Okay, here we go.
_
That's Chuck's Dixson's fault. Chuck Dickson killed him.
Oliver had his hands in a device, an exploding device,
and if he removed one of his hands,
it would've set off the bomb and exploded the plane.
- Yes. - Superman was there,
and he was like,
"We can do this, but I would have to..."
He intimates that he would have to laser off Oliver's arm,
which then would've made Oliver look like
the "Dark Knight Returns" Oliver Queen
who only had one arm.
So, while we were reading the books, we were like, "Oh!
The future is here!" And then instead,
- Oliver chose to die. - Yes.
Kevin, that incredibly long answer is correct.
- Yes! - So you are actually our winner.
I'm the filibuster winner!
I just said a lot of words
- and I won, man. - Figures.
Thank you for making me look good on TV.
- I try. - Thank you for asking me those questions.
You guys did very well. When we come back,
we're gonna take a glimpse
into the future of "Crisis On Infinite Earths",
after you go through this wormhole
of infinite commercials.
Welcome back to "Crisis Aftermath".
We got Marc Guggenheim back out for this final act,
and we are 24 hours away
from the next installment of "Crisis On Infinite Earths".
And all we know is that anything can happen.
Quantum Tower shot out of the ground.
Burt Ward got killed after two seconds
and a very clever line.
So we went to New York Comic Con and we asked our beloved fans
what they think is going to go down.
Check it out.
I am so excited for "Crisis On Infinite Earths".
So many different characters
from so many different multiverses.
I think it's going to set up a lot
to bring Gotham City into the fold,
and all of those characters, and really be able
to kind of set them up for the Batwoman show,
which I'm excited for as well.
I really hope we find out
what happened to Bruce Wayne.
I would really like to see Sara Lance reunite
with the new Black Canary.
I'm really excited to see
Brandon Routh wear the cape.
I felt he was an under-appreciated Superman.
Maybe a clash between Supergirl and Batwoman
and see how they go up against each other.
I do think Flash is gonna be leading the whole group.
Maybe Batwoman will take the lead.
No. I don't think so.
- Why not? - I know!
Boy, oh, boy, everyone's got an opinion, man.
Were any of them right, Marc?
- Did any of them... - You know, there were
a couple things in there that we hit.
When you're writing the shows,
when the shows are airing and whatnot,
do you pay attention to the Internet and their...
- Yeah, yeah, actually... - Do they ever guess
- in advance, like... - Always. Always.
Really? So they figure it out?
Twitter is like crowdsourcing the writers' room.
So, yes, people are constantly, you know, predicting stuff.
So you're like, "Oh, my God, they got that!"
Yes. Oh, no, It's incredibly annoying.
- You know, at the same time... - Annoying, but at the same time
it's flattering, 'cause they're all over it.
They're thinking about it, you know?
And they're smart. The Internet's smart, man.
Where do you fall on the scale of fandom of Arrowverse?
How deep and hard do you go, Dani?
Oh, man, I mean, I feel like I've been here since day one,
so it's been so cool to see all these characters on...
honestly, you also grow with them.
Like, you talked about redemption,
and I feel like we've grown with Oliver.
You know, we've grown with Barry.
And one thing that I didn't really get to touch on was that Sara...
that moment with Sara and older Oliver
where she says, you know, "You're a good man".
And I think when the other Oliver dies
and he says, "Barry, you're the best of us",
- it's because he always discredits himself. - Right.
Yet he's had so much growth, and it's like...
I just love that moment
of her giving him his redemption of,
"You, too, are also a good man,
and that is what all the rest of us see".
You been watching these shows since the jump, yes?
Since the jump, yeah. I was an OG "Arrow" fan.
And it's funny, because it's hard
to still stay as passionate about things as you do,
as you get older, as the show gets older.
But these shows are always like a renewable resource.
They always find ways to seduce you back in.
And sometimes it's the crossover,
sometimes it's big character moments.
And sometimes it's just these people that you kind of love,
watching them do these things over and over and over again.
And, yeah, you just kind of... I like that love.
It's true, I love these shows.
Like I don't care if Barry faces a villain every year
that I know is going to be speed based.
Like, what else is he gonna do?
I appreciate that it's a family affair, and it always has been.
And every one of the Arrowverse series
ultimately does that, man.
It's about the family you have and the family you build.
It's fantastic. I want to thank all my guests.
Marc Guggenheim, Dani Fernandez,
Marc Bernardin, Kat McNamara,
LaMonica Garrett, Robert Rovner, and Caroline Dries, man.
Thank you all for coming in,
giving us a little dishing of the dirt.
We're going to be back on Tuesday night
for more giddy superhero chatter
after Crisis hour three.
Man, I'm gonna hunker down in my Fortress of Solitude.
You know what that means. Until then,
make sure you come back, man.
The whole universe is at stake!
See you next time on "Crisis Aftermath".