Arrow/The Flash: Burning Qs Answered About Earth-Two, the New Hood, Canaries Spinoff Set-Up and More
A lot happened this Tuesday night on The Flash and in Arrow‘s Season 8 premiere, as Barry Allen got his first taste of the anti-matter-related Crisis to come, while Oliver witnessed its destructive power first-hand.
As such, you may have some lingering questions, and we’ve rounded up some answers. But as always, email InsideLine@tvline.com with any additional scoop-seeking Qs!
WAS THAT ABSOLUTELY EARTH-TWO THAT GOT ATTACKED ON ARROW?
Absolutely. For one, Arrow showrunner Beth Schwartz confirmed that she made sure with her colleagues at The Flash that it was “OK” to have a wave of anti-matter consume Earth-Two (from which characters such as Harrison Wells and his daughter Jessie hailed), and “they were very gracious.” Secondly, Arrowverse producer Marc Guggenheim said on Twitter, “You’ll learn the state of Earth-2 next week.” (If the promo can be trusted, the Monitor says it has in fact been “erased from existence.”) And if you demand a third affirmation, just look at how Jay Garrick’s map denoted the next target. Boy, is Oliver gonna feel like crap when he fires up his DVR back home and sees this:
WILL ARROW VISIT OTHER ALTERNATE EARTHS?
“Besides the [‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’] crossover,” Schwartz said that the season opener “is the only episode of Arrow that is on a different Earth.”
DIDN’T THE FLASH ALREADY ESTABLISH THAT ROBERT QUEEN WAS ‘THE HOOD’ ON EARTH-TWO?
Yes, an Earth-Two news broadcast in The Flash 2×06 mentioned that Oliver Queen did not survive The Queen’s Gambit‘s sinking, and thus Robert Queen went on to become The Hood. And yet Adrian Chase was revealed as The Hood in Arrow’s season opener. Guggenheim explained on Twitter that, Diggle included, “More than one person has worn the hood on Earth-1. Why assume things would be any different on Earth-2?” He added that the apparent passing of the Earth-Two baton “is a reflection that 6 years have passed” since Papa Queen turned vigilante.
HOW DID DIGGLE’S SON J.J. WIND UP BEING DEATHSTROKE LEVELS OF EVIL?
J.J. and Connor (Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger’s son, whom Diggle and Lyla at some point adopted) “have this really fraught childhood that we’ll explain more in the upcoming episodes,” says Schwartz. “[We’ll see] how they got to this place where … JJ is willing to kill his own brother, and how he went down this path.”
IS ARROW‘S 2040 STORYLINE SETTING UP THE SPINOFF?
It was announced last month that Arrow‘s penultimate episode will serve as a backdoor pilot for Green Arrow and The Canaries, a spinoff starring Katie Cassidy Rodgers, Katherine McNamara and Juliana Harkavy. Schwartz, though, says the prospective offshoot “didn’t really” affect Arrow‘s Season 8 plan for Mia, Connor et al “We always knew what that story was going to be, and the pilot is its own kind of different beast,” she explained.
SPEAKING OF KATIE CASSIDY RODGERS: IS SHE STILL A SERIES REGULAR?
Though billed in the Arrow premiere with “Special Appearance By” (as opposed to last season’s “With”), the original cast member is still a series regular, TVLine has confirmed.
WHAT WAS WITH BATMAN’S MASK REPLACING DEATHSTROKE’S?.
Sometimes a fun Easter egg is just a fun Easter egg; so, speculate if you wish that Earth-Two’s Bruce Wayne mentored Robert Queen. “Thank god for Batwoman,” Schwartz says of the Bat-nod. “Now that they’re in our universe, we’re able to get away with a lot more things Batman-related.” Guggenheim meanwhile gave props to FX firm Zoic Studios for “working this in so seamlessly to our original pilot footage.” (With reporting by Vlada Gelman)
Want more scoop on the Arrowverse? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.
Will team flash in a episode of flash be aware or even address that earth-2 has been completely wiped out along with harry and Jesse because it would seem kind of wierd for the team to not notice something like that.
When last heard from.. Harry and Jesse had actually moved to earth – 3
When was this? I remember when Harry had lost some of his intelligence after The Enlightenment he went to go find Jesse. Was that on Earth 3? I’m going to be very annoyed if Harry and Jesse just got wiped out. He’s my favorite version!
Jesse’s last appearance. It might have been the Flashtime episode, or possibly one after that.
While she had spent time on Earth 3, that was because that earth needed a Flash while Jay was imprisoned. Once he was freed, he resumed duties there and she returned to Earth 2. Though she did once again return to Earth 3 in Flashtime to get Jay’s help, she still went back to Earth 2 at the end of the episode. She is possibly dead but given her abilities, if anyone could survive, she could… but also, with the actress on another show, they might let her pass (and potentially reboot the character from Flash’s earth using a different actress or something as well). Though I’d love to see an appearance from her. I’m also really hoping we get to see Citizen Cold and the Ray survive.
If the TV shows use Crisis the same way the comics did then the question will become redundant – at least for those characters like Wells that exist on multiple Earths. How they will handle things like the markedly different Wells personalities is anyone’s guess though, and that may be connected with Tom Cavanagh playing the TV version of Pariah.
Checked on the Arrowverse Wiki — Jesse moved back to Earth-2 after Jay Garrick was freed from the speed-force prison. Maybe we will learn of her fate in the crossover episodes.
Gorilla City is gone though.
I am curious of the time line for the Green Arrow/Canaries show. Drake lost her Canary Cry. Will she and Laurel want to play their older selves. Will Legends still in and time travel everyone to a different time where Mia and the younger Canaries exist together? Not a fan of the 2040 timeline plot.
Totally agree. It’s confusing. I have no idea when the spinoff will take place. I don’t like the flash forward either.
I feel pretty confident they’ll be moved to the “present” after Crisis. It’s the kind of thing Crisis is designed to do.
Since Mia will be fighting alongside Oliver in the present during Crisis, I’m guessing she gets stuck in 2020 post-Crisis and the new show is set there.
well now we know where Batman disappeared to three years ago.. he was on earth – 2
The Batman of earth-2 was, anyway. No reason to think that its “our” Batman
It is not Crisis related but anyway: what do you guys think about Barry having Gideon in his ear instead of Cisco or Iris? It felt weird, with Oliver not having Felicity in his ear also it was like they wanted to focus more on the hero. I don’t dislike it, it just felt very convenient.
Will the crossover be standalone “movie-like” similar to last year? I don’t watch Batwoman or Black Lightening and have stopped watching Legends when it sorta became Constantine 2 last season. I LOVE and look forward to Arrowverse crossovers, but feel like I’m going to miss alot of plotlines?
That’s hard to explain. I think that after “Crisis”, that there will definitely be repercussions felt through these various shows. I remember reading Crisis on Infinite Earths way back in the mid-80’s as it was being published. At the conclusion of “Crisis”, the multiverse simply merged all of the multiverse into a single universe, eliminating all of these alternate versions of Earth. Meaning that there would simply only be one version of each character. For The only difference would be as in Wonder Woman/Wonder Girl/Troia who were different characters that existed within the same universe and Flash/Kid Flash/Jesse Quick who were also different characters. But ancillary characters such as Iris, Joe, Harrison, Cisco, Jay, etc, would only feature a single character for those who are “unique”.
Thanks for trying but this doesn’t answer my question. I mean I don’t normally watch 3 out of the 6 shows…will watching just the crossover episodes of the other still make sense (stand alone, not related to their regular story lines). Last season it was stand alone after the crossover they resumed regular storylines while mentioning /dealing with repucusions of crossover events
it will probably make sense… BL wont directly cross-over anyway… and Legends doesnt start till after crisis.
Probably will be fine. I stopped watching Supergirl last year, and her inclusion in last years crossover wasn’t confusing for me.
Doesn’t look like it. The first two episodes of Flash were Crisis-related, and the Arrow premiere was solely focused on Crisis. It probably won’t be long before Supergirl and Batwoman start having Crisis issues manifest in their episodes.
after last episode of titans all dcu in cw looks foolish
This is shaping up to be the best ever for the entire Arrowverse which I’ve been down on for two years. Wow, great! Knocking it outside of the park GREAT!
I thought that the whole point of Oliver’s mission with the Monitor was so that Barry and Kara wouldn’t have to die, but the Monitor is telling Barry that he IS going to die. Am I confused, or can the Monitor not be trusted? And if he’s a bad guy, what will the Anti-Monitor be like?!!
I was confused too, however perhaps he could only save one and perhaps Supergirl was the option given. We didn’t actually see the full deal. I do think Monitor can be trusted to an extent, however he is guiding things towards an outcome where the most amount of lives are saved (in Flash, Barry saw tons of futures and there was only one outcome that seemed to work so far … kind of like Doctor Strange in Avengers Infinity War). It still seems like there must be some way for Barry as Flash to survive … and I do feel like the key phrase being said is “Flash must die” versus “Barry must die.” But we’ll see.
I’m curious how Diggle got to Oliver on Earth-2 to help him out? Last time I believe we saw him he was telling Oliver and Felicity about the secluded Argus cabin they could live in. Did the Monitor realize Oliver was going to need help, so he semi-kidnapped Diggle to give Oliver he extra help with somebody Oliver could trust?
Diggle said that he went to Cisco and got the little deus ex machina portal gadget so that he could follow. It’s also what Oliver, Diggle, and Laurel used to escape the Crisis anti-matter that destroyed Earth-2.
If we are seeing flash forwards, doesn’t that mean the crisis was successfully handled and there’s no tension or suspense? Why are we seeing boring flash forwards?
Jodie Ares should get the death aplenty for killing this young man if not depth then in jail for 150 years no paroll.
Not sure what this has to do with Arrowverse, but…thanks?
The Arrowverse programs have actually come back from the shark. They’ve been great this season across the board.
If earth 2 was destroyed by the anti monitor, what happened to supergirl? How will they address her?
That was not her Earth.