Later this month there is going to be a superhero mash-up that will do for the genre on television what The Avengers did on film, as characters from Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and DC's Legends Of Tomorrow come together in a major crossover event.
The umbrella title of the storyline is "Invasion," and it's based on a 1988 DC Comics three-issue event. In it, an alien alliance known as the Dominators have come to Earth to absorb the power of all meta-humans so that it can be utilized in the creation of their own army of meta-soldiers. The heroes of Earth, naturally, aren't having any part of it, and they team up to fight off these power-sucking parasites.
Empire goes behind the scenes on the crossover through a combination of exclusive interviews and comments made on stage at EW's recent Popfest event.
Stephen Amell (actor, "Oliver Queen/Green Arrow"): It was really cool. We had our individual scenes, but then we had scenes where we're twenty superheroes there in this big airplane hangar. It looked like and felt like, and I think that the fans will feel [this way], this is a big three or four-hour movie that we're putting on. It's really cool.
Aaron Helbing (executive producer, The Flash): The challenges of the crossover are the best problems to have. How often do you get to tell these stories across three to four nights of television? That's a very rare thing, and I think we were all excited and honored that we get to do that, and that people really want to see all of the shows and how they're interconnected.
Melissa Benoist (actress, "Kara Danvers/Supergirl"): I think Kara just wants to be accepted and be part of the cool kids. I felt the same way. It was so fun to just be in this big group setting, where it's just this infectious environment where it all felt really good. She had good interactions with almost everyone there.
Grant Gustin (actor, "Barry Allen/The Flash"): Last year we had the Flash and Arrow crossover, but this is a lot bigger. We have seventeen characters in multiple scenes and almost everyone interacts with every other character at a certain point. It's huge.
Phil Klemmer (executive producer, DC's Legends of Tomorrow): Getting the script written felt like a small miracle unto itself. It's the sort of thing you're grateful for when it's done, or maybe on my deathbed. Seriously, looking down the barrel of it, it is really amazing. It's incredible that we get the opportunity to do this. We're already afforded such incredible liberty with what we do. The ideas that we've run past the studio and the network that they don't blink their eye at.. There's really no idea that's too insane. I think everybody's just been so desensitized to it all. You hand them a script and they're, like, "All right, there's Flash, there's Supergirl, there's Oliver, there's twenty-eight other Legends and bad guys, and we're going to travel through time..." They don't even blink at it.
Greg Berlanti (executive producer, all four series): We're very excited for everybody to see it. They all have their own continuing storylines through it, but it really does very much feel like in the middle of the whole season a three-hour movie. It starts a little bit at the tail end of Supergirl, because, for those of you who watch, she's in a whole other universe and on a whole other planet. There's someone having to get her. Then it really begins the night of The Flash and continues through the others. The complex that they talked about shooting in is a fun little thing. We found an exterior that we cut out to be the building, and it looks a lot like the Hall Of Justice. We like that.
Wendy Mericle (executive producer, Arrow): Being a part of the crossover was tricky given the sort of gritty and more rooted tone we've taken this season, but we knew it was something we would be facing. At the same time, I have to say we're really excited about this crossover, which also happens to be our hundredth episode. We wanted it to feel not like something that's part of this bigger universe, even though it is and we do want to honor that part of it. Arrow was the first and we in many ways are responsible for this universe, but we wanted it to feel like the hundredth episode and very true to Arrow. I have to say we came up with a way that we're really excited about.
Amell: I'm incredibly grateful for everything that Greg, Andrew Kresiberg, Marc Guggenheim and Wendy have done and created. I know some fans were, like, "Will we get enough Arrow during the one-hundredth episode?" To me, the hundredth episode basically had to be a crossover, because it's emblematic of everything that we've been able to create, foster and help grow. Obviously all of these shows stand on their own. The crossover and aliens, watching Oliver react to aliens, is one of my favorite things that I've ever gotten to do. It gives us a chance to do something for the hundredth episode for the fans that in the normal course of our season, we would never be able to get to do. For that, I was very grateful. To work with all the people that I got to work with or hadn't worked with for a very long time on the hundredth episode, I was very grateful.