‘The Flash,’ ‘Arrow’ Producers on Crossover Fallout: ‘There’s Always a Cost’
While “Arrow” and “The Flash” joined forces in this year’s crossover event to launch Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Vandal Savage into “Legends of Tomorrow,” plenty of big events still went down to keep the heroes of Central City and Star City reeling for the rest of their respective seasons.
For Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), especially, things got complicated as he finally reconnected with the son he never knew he had, but at great cost. First and foremost, he’s now keeping the fact that he has a son he is now spending time with a secret from Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards).
“True to what we’ve done on the show, if there’s a secret somewhere, it’s going to come out, and it’s going to have some serious consequences,” said executive producer Wendy Mericle, who promised things coming to a head for the fan favorite couple in the middle of the season. “We’re really excited about how that’s going to change things and it’s really going to raise the stakes and throw some wrenches into the relationship. So far this season, it’s been pretty smooth sailing, so we’re going to really mine that. There will be some fallout for both of them.”
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The producers also promised more of Oliver’s son and his mother, Samantha (Anna Hopkins).
“Anna’s very talented and has many opportunities, and she really took a flyer on us when we said, ‘do this one scene for us in Season 2, and we promise in two years, we will make this a real part and have this really be part of the show,'” said Andrew Kreisberg.
Though fans suspected The CW’s Arrowverse had just introduced Connor Hawke, the comic book character who would eventually succeed his father Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow, the producers threw a curveball and named the kid William. And it’s not a fake out.
“When we came up with the whole idea of it, part of it we didn’t want to be tied in to a character like Connor, and not be able to have him be a part of the show if he was so young,” Kreisberg said. “To give us the leeway to still have Connor Hawke be a part of the universe without tying that in, that was the biggest reason we made that decision. It’s actually one of the things all of us are most proud of.”
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The other big reveal in the conclusion of the crossover was that the combined teams’ first effort to defeat Vandal Savage actually failed, killing everyone, and Barry traveled back to the previous day in order for one more shot. He’s skeptical of trying to change the future, knowing there are consequences from personal experience, but Oliver couldn’t see how an outcome that would be worse than the one that already happened.
“There’s a cost to it,” said Kreisberg. “When Sara was brought back, when Thea was brought back, last year when Barry changed the timeline, this year when Barry changes the timeline. Any of these things that feel like the right thing to do, there’s always, always a price. Whether that price gets paid immediately, or whether that price gets paid later on, in ways you don’t foresee, it always comes back to haunt you.”
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On “The Flash,” the shooting of Harrison Wells necessitated the introduction of Velocity 6, which comic book fans should recognize as an earlier model of Velocity 9.
“If you’re a fan of the comics, you know that a big part is Velocity 9, and today you guys met Velocity 6,” Kreisberg teased. “It’s safe to say that there will be a few more iterations of that formula. How it plays out, and how it works, and who uses it, and the effects that that has, that’s something you’ll have to watch.”
The timing of the introduction of the speed force serum is also interesting, as Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) is set to arrive in Central City in the Dec. 8 episode.
“The Flash” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW, while “Arrow” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m.