Original subtitles

Did you see what I just saw?

Everything changes right now, folks.

Resurrections, evil heroes,

the death of the Flash, but not that Flash.

We're gonna talk about all of it right here on "Crisis Aftermath".

Come on!

- Synced and corrected by Firefly - - www.addic7ed.com -

Welcome to "Crisis Aftermath", man.

It's a good thing that this show

exists outside of time and space,

because things are looking pretty bad for our heroes.

So much to cover. Where do we even begin?

How about introducing the panel, man?

Executive producer Marc Guggenheim is with us again.

Universally recognized nerd Dani Fernandez is back.

And look at this. The baddest of the bad, man.

And the baldest of the bald.

Lex Luthor himself, Jon Cryer is here!

- Captain, how are you, man? - Thank you, thank you.

I am very well. Very well. And you?

So damn good. I have been enjoying

what you've been doing with Luthor.

Look, I'll get into it later, but I think it's the best

interpretation of Luthor that's ever been done.

We'll talk about it in a second.

- Wow, okay. - The Multiverse is kaput,

Superman is dead,

and Anti-Monitor's evil plan

is centered around God's cruelest invention a treadmill.

Jon, here's a question from Twitter, man.

They're asking... Orphansteph says...

_

Ah, well, we shot a huge scene in a quarry.

And it hasn't actually played yet,

but it is the huge shadow demon battle.

And we shot it in an actual working quarry...

- Mm-hmm. - ... so there was actual

huge explosions of dynamite

going on as we were shooting.

So it was pouring rain, there were stunts...

it was crazy stunts, and we had stunt explosions

and real explosions with, like, small avalanches.

The thing was, they were pulling out the stops for the crossover.

And, honestly, when I had done

three episodes of "Supergirl" last year

and they told me they were doing Crisis,

I said, "Okay, that might be something I have to do".

So, let me ask... that was something I wanted to know.

Were you only gonna do Luthor for just

that little bit and then never again?

And then you heard about this,

and you were like, "I wanna still play"?

Yeah, well, the idea was

that Luthor was only gonna do three episodes.

- Yeah. - And that was... the whole point was

we were just gonna have some fun in this particular universe

and that was gonna be it.

But, obviously, the character caught fire a little bit,

and I knew Crisis was coming up

and I really wanted to participate in that.

And now you inherited the mantle,

and your take on the character,

to me, as a comic book reader,

is the closest to the books that I've ever seen,

except within the animated series, man.

Like, live action? That is Luthor.

I remember reading something about you,

and I don't know if it was tongue in cheek.

But you were like, "I gotta make up for,

like, the 'Superman' that I was in".

Which I assume was more humor than anything else.

But you're a guy that's known for being funny,

for playing funny.

Was it exciting to be offered, like, the ultimate villain?

Yes, it was.

It was a little odd

because the way it came about was very strange.

I got a call from an old friend of mine from summer camp,

who said, "You know, I think the producers

of 'Supergirl' are trying to get in touch with you".

I'm like, "What?" And then Bill Prady,

who was a producer of "Big Bang Theory",

wrote me an email saying,

"Somebody wants to ask you about playing Mex Muthor".

And I said, "Wait, what is happening here?"

And then I got the call.

And at first I just thought, "Why me?"

You know, in a million years, I wouldn't think...

but then the second I started really

going through the iterations of who this guy is,

I was like, "Oh, my God, I wanna do this guy".

And that I had the history with, you know,

obviously, working with Gene.

But, yeah, that interview was not really a joke.

It was that "Superman IV" was a very emotional thing for me.

Being a part of the Superman universe was really important to me.

And, unfortunately, that movie... they ran out of money on it.

I don't know if you've seen "Superman IV",

- but it is not the most... - A couple times.

It is not the most polished of the Superman franchise.

And I'd always been very disappointed in that.

I had always felt like... and it was also

sort of the end of the Christopher Reeve Superman.

And that broke my heart, because I loved it as a kid.

In 1978, when I saw "Superman: The Movie",

- I believed a man could fly. - You believed a man could fly.

Exactly. And so being a part of that was important to me,

and I felt like we let down the legacy of it.

And so when the producers of "Supergirl"

told me what they wanted to do with Lex,

I was like, "Oh".

'Cause I haven't seen a comics-accurate Lex.

You're absolutely right.

Did you go to the material? Are you a fan?

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

I collect Jack Kirby comic art.

I go to Comic-Con on purpose.

And just by myself for fun.

I grew up kind of immersed in the Marvel universe,

and only actually came later to understand

all the great stuff that was going on in DC.

But a part of my youth... and "Crisis" itself

was a part of my youth, because it was so ambitious.

As an '80s kid, I never could've envisioned Ducky as Luthor.

You are absolutely pulling it off.

- You're nailing it, man. - Oh, thank you.

I also love that everyone tried to get a hold of you.

It's, like, dude, check your DMs.

- I know. You're right. - You know? Like...

Hours two and three of Crisis

were all about the Paragons, man.

The search for those seven extra-special do-gooders

set this whole adventure in motion.

So, Mark, what do the Paragons represent?

Well, you know, they represent different aspects of humanity.

You know, hope and love and courage and truth.

But what they really represented for us as writers was

we needed a McGuffin.

We needed our heroes to be looking for something.

And every year prior to "Crisis On Infinite Earths",

they did an annual crossover

between "The Justice League of America"

and "The Justice Society of America".

And the last one before "Crisis",

written by Jerry Conway and drawn George Price,

who drew "Crisis", was about the idea

that there were these special characters that...

in the comic, if you remove them from the universe,

basically all superheroes would disappear.

But the idea that there are these special heroes

that are out in the multiverse, that was worth appropriating.

- And appropriating... - Stealing.

Yeah, there we go. Just call it what it is.

Fancy writer talk over there.

Let's talk about Batwoman, the Paragon of Courage.

Dani, what makes Batwoman courageous in your estimation?

Well, she was not someone

that originally even planned to be a vigilante.

And she's also fighting alongside people that have superpowers,

so that takes a lot of courage, to be like,

"Oh, I might be the first one to die here".

But she also has tremendous PTSD.

She's dealing with discrimination for her sexuality.

There's so many things that she is going up against,

so many obstacles that she's had.

And yet she still is fighting for us for some reason.

So that... I mean, that takes a lot of courage.

- Absolutely. - She stands up against Supergirl, you know?

Yeah, she's got some kryptonite in her pocket,

but she's got a lot of courage there in that moment.

They do have a nice "World's Finest" dynamic going on,

with Kara being like, "Hey, we're friends",

and Batwoman being like, "I don't know".

I think in the years to come,

we will see that the relationship between Kate and Kara

is the replacement for the relationship

between Barry and Oliver.

Ooh, nice, man. Inside dirt right there.

Jon, Lex Luthor seems to have taken Superman's place

as a Paragon of Truth

thanks to the Bookmark of Destiny.

Yes.

Let's take another look at how he got there.

- We have to go back right now. - Barry, we can't.

They're gone.

No.

- Something's wrong. - Kal? Kal?

- Something's wrong. - No.

- I can't... - Hey, hey, hey.

I can't... Kara, please.

Fix it...

Fix it.

What do I do?

No, no!

Oh, I am so happy that worked.

Lex, what did you do?

Well, I held the Book of Destiny

and I saw you seven Paragons due to be stranded

at the Vanishing Point.

And I thought destiny could use a little rewrite.

So...

what do we do now?

You're in a scene like that.

Are you like, "Get me a costume!"

I get some very nice suits.

- You do. - They're beautifully tailored.

Uh, yeah, you know, it was...

it was me and a bunch of capes.

You look like the one guy at the house

that everybody's trick-or-treating at.

Yeah, it was fun, though. You know, it was...

and also a great sort of gut punch part of the show,

'cause, you know... 'cause that was my holy...

holy moment,

was going, "Oh, no".

You know, 'cause Brandon as Superman

is just a great Superman.

And it's something they've been teasing the whole time.

- The whole time. - Like, "You're gonna see him in the suit! He's back!"

- And then you take him away. - Oh, God!

It's like in "Aliens" when the captain...

or rather "Alien", when the captain dies.

You know, it's like, "Oh, no.

- Things are not gonna go well from here". - Anything can happen.

What is it like playing Lex Luthor?

How does one approach the character?

Because it's... you know, it's...

one would be tempted to play him as just a villain,

but he doesn't see himself as a villain.

He sees himself as a world savior.

Oh, absolutely.

- He's a bit of a sociopath... - Yeah.

... in this one. They've allowed that layer to come in.

Whereas he's been a little more clownish in the films

- and stuff like that. - Right.

But even the worst sociopath...

you know, Ted Bundy was incredibly charming

and worked at a suicide prevention hotline.

He saved some lives. So people are complicated,

and that's what I'm letting Lex be.

Ted Bundy is like, "Why are you harshing on me?

- I saved all these other lives". - Exactly.

- "I only killed a couple of hundred". - "On the average..."

You know, it's nice when everyone can talk about Bundy

and end with, "It's complicated".

- Well, you know... - Really reduces it down to what it is.

I want to thank Jon Cryer for joining us, man.

- Excellent job... - Truly a pleasure.

- ... killing Luthor. - Thank you.

- Well, not killing, but killing it as Luthor. - Killing it as.

We gotta be careful what we say around here.

People take it seriously, write it down on the Internet.

We've got so much more in store tonight

on "Crisis Aftermath", including a visit

from the voice of Batman himself, Kevin Conroy.

And the world premiere teaser

for CW's newest superhero Stargirl, man.

I've read the Book of Destiny

and it says you won't go anywhere.

Stay right there.

Hey, man, welcome back to "Crisis Aftermath".

I'm here with Marc Guggenheim, Dani Fernandez,

and our next guest is the showrunner of "The Flash".

It's Eric Wallace. How are you, sir?

- Doing great. - Okay, as we saw tonight,

"Crisis On Infinite Earths"

deals a lot with fate and destiny.

The crisis itself has been teased

since the very first episode of "The Flash".

I remember seeing this headline

and being incredibly excited inside,

goosebumps, going like, "They're talking about 'Crisis'.

Like, I know what that is. Will they ever do it?"

What is it like building up to an event that massive?

You think to yourself, "Okay, we've got to honor

this really incredible, incredible comic book event".

So, you're putting the season together,

and we started at the end last year wit "Elseworlds",

and you're like, "Does the Flash really have to die?

Do we really have to do this?"

- And not only... - I'm sure Grant was like, "No!"

I was the same way. "We'll all be out of a job.

We can't do that. No, he's got to live".

So you've got to come up with a way to honor what we've said

with the Monitor in 601 saying, "The Flash must die",

but also give it a nice story twist, give it some emotion.

So we thought about it for quite a while,

and we got to what I hope the audience thinks

is a very satisfying conclusion,

which is a little bit of the best of both worlds.

Grant almost doing it, wanting to,

being the hero that we always thought he was gonna be,

and at the very last second, in comes John Wesley Shipp...

- Right. - ... and it completes a 30-year arc.

And here I am watching this, weeping, right?

- That's tears rolling. - I'm 14-year-old Eric

watching that CBS pilot back in the day

and I'm thinking, "Wow, this could only happen on a crossover".

You even brought in the score.

- Yes. - Like, when I heard the old score come in,

I was...

And, you know, John Wesley Shipp

has been well served by the Arrowverse for years now,

but this is such a grand, glorious moment

to see him back in that suit.

Because in many ways, like, that show is a trailblazer

for, like, what you guys have been doing for years.

Seeing him back in the suit and then

dying as the Flash is really, really...

And that flashback moment, oh!

- Does it get you? - Yes.

- It gets me every time. - Oh, man. I know.

- And that was my Flash growing up. - Yes.

And to see that come full circle? Tears right there.

- We didn't script that originally. - I know.

That was something that we added in the editing room.

- So it wasn't in the script? - It wasn't in the script.

So, what happens in an instance like that?

You cut together the show and you're like,

- "Ooh, if we did this..." - We want to see...

we want to see a little bit of his life flashing...

no pun intended... before his eyes, you know?

We just craved it, and, you know, our amazing,

you know, post-producer Jeff Garret,

you know, went to the archives and got the footage.

And we knew we had to change the aspect ratio

because it was a different aspect ratio back then.

That's right, they were shot 1.33 back in the day.

So, um... but, man, it's awesome.

It's one of my favorite moments in that hour.

That's crazy, man. That's a nice touch.

As we were saying, we finally saw Flash meet his fate,

but it didn't play out exactly like he expected,

so let's take another look.

I couldn't be the hero I am without you guys.

Tell Joe and Iris I love them.

We will.

Sorry, kid, but this has to happen.

Barry, what are you doing?

I'm momentarily stealing your speed.

You play the speedster game long enough, you learn some neat tricks.

Wait, why are you doing this?

Novu said, "The Flash must die in Crisis".

He never said which one.

Come on, you're cruel, man.

How do you decide to kill off such a big hero?

I mean, look, you killed off the Flash,

but not the Flash that everyone's, like,

- tuning in to see every week. - Right.

So you can have your cake and eat it, too.

We did, we did.

- But hopefully we honor the original Flash... - You did, yeah.

... you know, from the '90s show.

And up until that moment right before it happens,

hopefully the audience is literally saying,

"There's no way out of this. There's no way out of this".

And then the twist comes,

and you have these two great performers, two generations,

where you have Grant Gustin who loves John

and John loves Wesley...

- I guess he loves himself. - He loves himself.

Who doesn't love the Flash, right?

But John loving Grant, and to see them working together...

and that was real emotion that you saw in that scene

as they kind of realized... Grant's like,

"He's passing a real torch to me.

This really is the end of him".

And then John, he told us, I think, afterwards,

"Thank you for giving me

this opportunity to close a chapter".

Oh, my God, I'm gonna cry.

I'm gonna cry just thinking about it.

That's so true. I never thought about that.

When they ended "Flash", it ended unceremoniously,

and they didn't like, "Here's your season finale".

So to actually bring closure to his incarnation?

Come on, that's a gift.

That John Wesley Shipp death, that's big time.

- We're very lucky. - Absolutely. Absolutely true.

Now that the Anti-Monitor has won, ostensibly,

the Multiverse is gone and everything is nothing.

I personally am having trouble staying sane, man.

Here to give us the latest Multiverse report

is "Entertainment Weekly's" own Chancellor Agard.

Chancellor, how you doing, man?

Dealing.

All right, take us there. You got the big board.

I got some things here. I can try to help you out.

Well, in the past two hours,

we went to eight parallel Earths.

First we started on Earth 18,

where Barry, Mia, Constantine, and Sara

tried to resurrect Oliver

and kind of turned him into a zombie,

and fought a version of Jonah Hex without his iconic scar.

Then we went to Earth 167

where we encountered Tom Welling from "Smallville",

who gave up his powers to chop wood and have kids

with "Smallville's" Erica Durance,

the Lois Lane to his Clark.

- He still won't wear the "S". - No!

On Earth 96, Brandon Routh wore the "S",

specifically in a suit based off Alex Ross's "Kingdom Come" design.

Oh, yeah, we were all very tingly about that.

And speaking of "Kingdom Come",

that comic also gave us the rock bottom

Bruce Wayne wearing the exoskeleton

who killed Superman on Earth 99,

played by, in my opinion,

the best Batman, Kevin Conroy,

who voiced him on the animated series and in the video games.

- Yes. - Then on Earth 666,

while the name is not so subtle,

nor is the man himself, Lucifer,

played by Tom Ellis on the Netflix show "Lucifer",

which is inspired by the DC comic "The Sandman".

This is his first Arrowverse appearance, as you said earlier.

Also making his Arrowverse debut is Black Lightning.

So now the only CW show not involved

in a crossover is "Nancy Drew".

- Yes. - And, finally...

we learn that Earth 203 is where the women

from the 2000s-era "Birds of Prey" show hang out.

But none of this matters because the Anti-Monitor

destroyed all of this and everything we love and know,

including this entire segment.

Faster!

There you have it.

There it is. Thanks, Chancellor, man.

Good Lord, it takes a mind to bring us through all that.

Okay.

"Nancy Drew" was supposed to be a spoiler.

♪ It's so hard ♪

♪ To say good-bye ♪

♪ To our favorite characters from the Arrowverse ♪

Let's take a minute now to pay tribute

to all the people, places, and, yes, planets

that we've lost along the way.

Roll that sad-ass clip.

I made a promise to keep fighting no matter what.

My world died.

My family.

Hadn't even thought of that.

Now facing my own mortality.

- So weird. - That's very meta.

Yeah, right?

I love that they did dogs and not cats.

- Aww. - I want to thank Eric for joining us, man.

When we come back, we're gonna be talking to a man

who sounds a lot like Batman.

And we have the world premiere of the "Stargirl" teaser.

In brightest day, in blackest night,

we will see you later tonight. Stick around.

Welcome back, man. You're watching "Crisis Aftermath",

the official "Crisis On Infinite Earths" aftershow.

The Anti-Monitor's evil plan brought an end to the universe

and killed everyone we've ever loved.

But on the plus side,

the Arrowverse finally got to see Bruce Wayne,

although this Bruce Wayne was a bit of a grump.

Let's look.

This guy's not a paragon of anything.

I was right. We can't trust The Monitor.

- What did you do? - Clearly, what you couldn't.

How was he a threat?

Strange visitor from another planet

comes to Earth with powers and abilities

far beyond those of mortal men?

Clark.

Clark always said yes to anyone with a badge or a flag.

He gave them too much power.

My parents taught me a very different lesson.

Life only makes sense if you force it to.

Come on, man!

Holy crap, I am so happy to have

one of my personal idols here.

The one true Batman, ladies and gentlemen.

- It's Kevin Conroy. - Hey, how's it going?

How's it going? Good to see you.

- Hey! - Yes, everybody knows.

I am vengeance.

- I'm like... - My nipples got hard, man.

I'm in the radius of his voice.

- I can, like, feel it. - There you go.

You have spent the better part of the last,

- what, 25 years or more... - 27.

27 years as the voice of the one true Batman.

This is the first time you actually

got to physically portray him in real media.

- What was that like? - I know. It was incredible

to get that opportunity, finally.

But as old Bruce Wayne, you know?

Old, sort of angry,

bitter Bruce Wayne.

So it's a version of him I had never imagined,

and I really leapt at the opportunity.

- I was so happy. - How did it happen?

You got a call and they were like,

"Hey, man, we got an idea".

Well, it was so wonderful.

It was sort of a mixture of worlds

because the person who's responsible

for a lot of casting at Warner Bros. now,

for on-camera casting, is someone I've known for 40 years from...

- I used to do theater in New York, as you know. - Yeah.

And, um, I know Tom Berg from the old days in New York,

and he knew my work from the stage.

So he knew me as an on-camera actor and as stage actor

long before any of the voice stuff came along.

So when this came up, I think the producers were talking about it,

and Tom was there to say, "Well, you know,

I know him from his on-camera work

and his stage work. He can handle this".

So it was a mixture of worlds. It was wonderful.

Was it that simple? And were you in the room

when they were like, "What if we got Kevin Conroy to do it?

Well, yeah. We wanted Kate to meet a version of Bruce

that was obviously different from the Earth 1 version of Bruce.

We were talking about who could play an older Batman,

an older Bruce Wayne.

And the moment Kevin's name came up in the room,

the entire room went insane.

I mean, just insane. And we knew we had to do it.

And, you know, Tom... actually, I think he was like,

"I'm actually having dinner with Kevin tomorrow".

Then he brought it up to him.

We've remained friends for 40 years,

so that was just a great happy coincidence.

There's a lot of things that happen both on these shows

and in the crossover that, quite frankly,

I believe only happened by dint of destiny.

- Really? - And this was absolutely

one of those fortuitous moments where it's like,

"Oh, this is meant to be".

When you talk about destiny, though, I mean,

my even playing this role...

this is the first animated role I ever auditioned for.

- Are you kidding? - Never.

- Wow. - It was the first audition

I went in on for an animated character.

Your performance as Batman is the one that, like,

when I read a comic book, I hear your voice.

When I think of Batman, when I see a review of something

and they talk about, "Batman says this",

I always hear it in your voice.

- Yes. - You are so... yes!

- The brain-washing worked. - Oh!

I get a young brain and I hold on.

That was... that was absolutely wonderful.

Since we have the voice of Batman right here,

we knew that we had to milk it.

So we asked fans what they'd most like

to hear the Dark Knight say.

Kevin, you down to read some of this?

- I'm down. - Oh, yeah!

Here we go, man. Take it away.

_

Yes!

_

Oh, such a better version of "Titanic".

I wish both the kids had lived in that version.

_

_

_

Oh, every Nickelodeon kid just lost it.

- Oh, no! - Yes.

_

_

_

Oh. I think we've all been waiting to hear that one.

_

_

_

_

I don't feel like a fan did that.

I snuck that one in myself.

I'm literally gonna roll a tear, man.

Kevin, thank you so much for not only joining us,

- for being Batman for the last 27 years. - Thank you. Appreciate it.

We gotta take a break, but when we come back,

we're gonna chat with Robert Wuhl

about returning to the DC universe.

And we look forward to January's finale

of "Crisis On Infinite Earths", man.

We're para-gone, but not para-forgotten.

Stick around. We'll be right back.

Hey, man, and welcome back to "Crisis Aftermath",

broadcasting from the heart of Los Angeles 69.

I'm your host Kevin Smith.

Joining us now, the man who played Alexander Knox

in Tim Burton's "Batman", it's Robert Wuhl!

- How are you, sir? Such a pleasure, man. - How you doing, buddy?

We got to see you in the first installment

of "Crisis On Infinite Earths",

but it seems you were nothinged by an anti-matter ray.

- Yeah. Just one line. - Yeah.

It was great fun, though,

I have to tell you, I had a blast.

They asked me to do it. I didn't think twice.

I just, "Yeah, I can do it".

- It's been 30 years, which is... - It's been a minute.

And you were there for the laying

- of the track in 1989 with Tim Burton's "Batman". - Yeah.

- Right. - That is the model

from which most superhero movies are kind of cut at this point.

When you guys were there

did you ever imagine one day there'd be a universe of movies

with a lot of people in costume?

Batman makes sense, because they had done the TV show.

Did you foresee superheroes, like, in legion?

Well, not to this extent.

Look, I knew I was a part of something special.

First of all, going to Pinewood studios

and seeing Tim Burton's Gotham City every day

- was really cool. - Right.

Because I was not a big fan of the TV series.

- It was too jokey for me. - Right.

And people were worried.

A, it was the most expensive movie ever made up to that point.

B, it was much darker than anybody expected it to be.

And C, are you old enough to remember

the backlash of Michael Keaton?

There was... it was... people were so mad,

it broke the Internet

- and there was no Internet. - Exactly. I mean, exactly.

Michael Keaton being announced as Batman, we look back...

- We were like, "Mr. Mom?" - Exactly.

It was Mr. Mom, or in London it was Mr. Mum.

And then, of course, you had Jack, you know,

which was a whole different kettle of fish.

Right. I remember that movie so well, incredibly well.

But I remember the trailer, too.

The dry trailer. The first trailer they did,

which had almost no score. It was just a series of images.

And you have the...

"Detective, is there a six-foot bat in Gotham City?" line.

The moment resonates with me.

When they called you up for Crisis,

and they're like, "We want you to come back

to play Alexander Knox",

do you even bother going back to look at the movie?

"What did I do 30, 40 years ago?"

Actually, it was funny, because I had tuned it in.

It was on one of the channels, and I hadn't seen it

in about 10, 15 years.

And I watched about an hour of it,

and, yes, it was dark,

- but it was also fun. - Very much.

The first ones were fun, more so than...

Jack Nicholson brought a lot of fun because he's Joker,

- in particular, yeah. - The Prince songs.

- The Prince, yes. - The, uh...

you know, so it was fun.

You gotta remember, too, in terms of 1989,

when they did this incarnation of Batman,

Batman fans were, like, "Finally.

This is the real Batman".

- He ain't jokey. He's dark. - That's right.

This is dark. Okay.

Not only did we get to revisit Tim Burton's "Batman",

we also got another chance to see Tom Welling

as Clark Kent from "Smallville".

But anyone expecting him to wear the cape

was in for a bit of a surprise, including Lex Luthor.

You gave up your powers?

Can't say I miss these chats.

You were basically a god. You could fly.

You could see through walls.

You had super strength.

You're kidding me.

That is worth more than any superpower.

Hey, Clark, the girls want to show you what they made.

I think it's time for you to...

Still stronger.

Ahh! That's dope, man.

Marc, how'd you pick the cameos for this?

Because there have been DC

movies and shows over history

and you've pulled from a lot of them.

How do you do it? How do you figure it out?

We just had a list.

And we got so lucky.

I remember saying to the writers

as we were working on this I said,

if we have a list of a hundred cool things

and we only do 50,

then we've still done 50 cool things.

It's just a cool thing, man.

It's, once again, fan service.

I loved seeing all the different Supermans

because I feel like there's so many different ways

that you can play him.

And he, wrongly, I think,

gets put in this singular box

and people think that he's simple.

But he's farthest thing.

- He's such a complex character. - He's tough to write for.

- True. - Like, most writers will dismiss it and be like,

"How do you write for a guy

that's got all the powers in the world?"

- But that's kind of the challenge. - Yeah.

And that "Smallville" moment was kind of everything,

particularly for old-school "Smallville" fans who were there.

Before there was an Arrowverse,

there was a "Smallville" series that went for, what,

- a decade or 11 years? - Yeah, a decade.

And what was so great about Tom's scene in Crisis

was it was written by Don and Holly Whitehead,

who wrote on the original "Smallville".

- No. - So, they obviously know the characters,

and this was an opportunity

for us to check back in with Lois and Clark

and see what has basically happened

over the intervening ten years.

Oh, it was beautiful, man. It was an excellent touch,

as well as including this man.

I want to thank Robert Wuhl for joining us.

- Excellent. Excellent. - Thank you, man.

Excellent talking to you. Thanks for being involved in this.

- My pleasure. - It was another bright moment

of my childhood to come back to life, man.

It just delivered.

Fan service to the highest degree.

When we come back,

we've got the exclusive world premiere teaser

for CW's newest superhero Stargirl.

Great Caesar's Ghost, it's time for a commercial break.

We'll be right back.

Hey, man, welcome back to "Crisis Aftermath",

your one-stop shop

for all things "Crisis On Infinite Earths".

I'm Kal-El Smith.

Next year will not only be bringing us the resolution

to "Crisis On Infinite Earths",

it'll also be giving us a brand-new hero

by the name of Stargirl.

And here's the creator of Stargirl, Geoff Johns.

- How are you, sir? - Hey, buddy. How you doing?

- Excellent seeing you, man. - You, too.

Geoff, you ran DC comics for years, for those that don't know.

You've worked on the movies.

Stargirl may not be a household name yet.

Tell them who she is and why she's special to you.

Well, she's the first character I ever wrote in comic books,

and I created her in my very first comic book.

But she is Courtney Whitmore,

and she's this teenager whose mom remarries

and they move from L.A. to Nebraska.

And there she discovers that her new stepfather,

Pat Dugan, played by Luke Wilson,

was a sidekick to a superhero when he was younger.

And she finds his partner's old stuff

and goes for a joyride

and gets involved in the superhero world.

And this character has been close to you.

For how many years now, you've been working on Stargirl?

- 20 years. - What's it like to bring it

from the two-dimensional page to the three-dimensional screen?

Oh, it's amazing. I mean, she was inspired by my late sister,

so it means a lot to me personally

to have her come off the page and onto the screen like this

and to work with the crew and the cast that I did.

It was amazing.

It's so nice to see you still in the space

and working on something that means so damn much to you, man.

- Dani? - Okay, so, when you were looking at casting,

what were some of the key things that were important to you

that they embodied...

the actress embodied the character?

Well, I looked at so many

casting tapes and people that came in.

And it was actually Brec Bassinger,

who plays Stargirl... she's amazing.

Right when I saw her tape, I was like, "That's her".

- Really? Just with the tape? - Yeah, it was done.

- Yeah. - Self-tapes work.

- Okay, good to know. - They do, and then...

Did it have anything to do with her alliterative superhero name?

- Brec Bassinger? - Yeah, she sounds like...

Well, it's a great superhero name,

but she actually is a superhero to me.

She's an amazing actor to work with.

She embodies, like, a heroic nature.

She's, you know, super nice and incredibly talented.

But it was humor and heart that came through on that tape.

And then she came in and read for us live,

and it just confirmed that everything I felt.

But it was... It was immediate. It was not...

- Wow. - And I'd looked at and seen so many people.

And, obviously, I was gonna be very particular about this role.

- It's so close to you. - Yeah.

For Pat Dugan, played by Luke Wilson,

I wrote the part for him. I didn't know him, but I wrote...

When I wrote Pat Dugan, I thought of Luke Wilson.

And I wrote him a letter,

and I said, "Hey, I wrote this for you".

- And we met and he loved it. - You scored him.

Look at you. Vision quest. Well done, man.

So you've been living with this thing

for about how long now? A year you been working on it?

Yeah, we've been working on it since over a year now.

And it's all done and ready to go,

and I'm anxious for people to see it.

I know, and you've seen so much of it.

We've seen absolutely nothing.

But now, right now,

we're gonna see the world premiere,

a first look at CW's "Stargirl".

Check it out.

Starman, are you there? Starman?

The Justice Society must live on.

Someone with honor must carry the torch.

I know this has been difficult,

with the move, and a new stepfather,

but we're gonna make a good life.

Hey! Sorry, that's just real delicate.

What are you?

It's the cosmic staff.

It's extremely temperamental.

The staff's not supposed to work for anyone except Starman.

This has to be the reason the staff lit up.

The staff chose me...

... and I choose you.

I never thought there'd be another Starman.

Stargirl.

"Stargirl", new series coming spring 2020

on The CW.

You know what, man? I have a child,

and I saw that child get born, and that's better than that.

That is incredible, man!

- I can't believe it. Congratulations. - Thanks.

It must feel amazing to see it go from the page

- up on to a real show. You rock, man. - Very exciting.

- Thanks, buddy. - Well done.

Check out "Stargirl" when it drops next year.

Thanks, Geoff, for stopping by.

You wanna get hugged to death by Beebo?

Then don't go anywhere. Stick around for more "Crisis Aftermath".

My Lord, that looks phenomenal.

Holy moly! Welcome back to "Crisis Aftermath".

This show's almost over, man, but fear not.

there are still two more hours

of "Crisis On Infinite Earths"

starting 8 PM on January 14th.

And I have no idea what's gonna happen, man.

So to help us look into the future

here's "Legends of Tomorrow" showrunner Keto Shimizu.

- How are you, Keto? - I'm doing great. How are you?

Right on, man. I'm so good.

We're getting to the end of this, but we need your help.

So, to recap, kids,

the Multiverse is gone.

Right? The Anti-Monitor seems to have won.

The final installment

of Crisis happens during "Legends Of Tomorrow".

What can you tell us about the Legends' role

in this Arrowverse epic?

The Captain, Sara Lance,

has a huge role to play in the final hour.

It's really when she comes into her own as leader

of all of these amazing heroes

to really pull everybody together

and, you know, honor everything that's happened

both in her life and in this crazy crossover,

and steer everybody into the final confrontation with the Anti-Monitor.

It's really epic and really fun.

That's why I love that she was named

the Paragon of Destiny,

because even in the last episode

where she was talking with Oliver

and he was trying to apologize,

and she had like accepted her destiny so much.

And she was trying to tell him, "No, I wouldn't be this

if that hadn't happened".

But she also brings that out in other people.

Like, she has this band of misfits that I think,

you know, people don't necessarily have faith in.

And she's allowed them to accept all their flaws as their destiny.

Let's talk about the Legends for a second.

This is the show in the Arrowverse

that seems to have grown the most and evolved the most

from the original incarnation to now.

Like, it was always kind of a fun idea,

but you guys started leaning into the fun

of a comic book universe in a big bad way about,

- what, season three? - Two.

Part way through two, and then three, it really, really...

- we just went crazy. - And then found its...

Really found it. So of the shows,

they definitely have the more humorous sensibility.

How does that blend in to "Crisis On Infinite Earths"?

Honestly, I think the humor that the Legends bring

to all of the hours is a nice sort of breath

of fresh air in a way, 'cause, you know, it's...

there's a lot going on.

There's a lot of plot that's being driven.

There's, like, 86 cast members.

Exactly, there's so many people, so many heroes,

and there are so many intense, emotional conversations happening

that it helps to have just that sort of lightness

peppered in to sort of bring it up and be like,

"Oh, yeah, this is also super crazy fun".

And, you know, these characters help

bring that out of other people as well.

Also, where can we read Rory's romance novel?

- Yeah. - Is that out?

That is a missed marketing tie-in.

- I know. I don't know how... - Somebody's fan fiction.

There aren't enough Beebos in the store

and this book does not exist in the real world.

Both these things are true.

For the fans. You gotta do it for the fans.

This show has a lot of fans

and we have fan questions coming in

from the Twitterverse, man.

MeliGrayce has this question.

_

_

_

_

_

- Keto? - Well, it's actually really interesting.

We decided that because

our season is coming after

this incredible, massive event,

that we would actually lean into that in our season

and let the fallout from what happens in Crisis...

- Nice. - ... really affect our season.

It affects it emotionally with Sara

going forward in a big way.

But also our mythology is directly tied

to the fallout from the results of the Crisis.

Marc, before we get out of here, as one of the architects

of all this, you got information

about what's gonna happen in 2020.

Give us a little something, man.

Something to hold us over for the holidays.

I'll say a lot of, you know, your big questions get answered.

I think there's some really great surprises,

still some wonderful moments,

some wonderful cameos still yet to come.

And probably one of the biggest, most epic fights

that we've ever done on any of the shows,

certainly in any of the crossovers.

So you got to check it out January 14th.

I'm gonna be there, man.

I want to thank you for building the universe

that we all get to enjoy,

some of us get to play in.

I've played in it from time to time

and I wouldn't have gotten to direct a "Flash" or "Supergirl"

had there not been an "Arrow", man.

So you guys engineered something special

that has trickled down,

and now it's gonna live for all eternity.

I have a feeling something big

is gonna happen to Oliver Queen in a way

that we'll carry him with us

in our hearts forever and stuff like that.

I can't wait to see what happens next year.

I don't want to live through these holidays.

I just want to go to sleep, wake up January...

- what's the date? - January 14th.

14th, that's gonna be my Christmas.

Man, I want to thank my panel,

my special guests, and most of all,

I want to thank the fans. That's you folks at home, man.

This is all for you.

As you can hear, a lot of fan service at work here

and there's still lots more to come.

Can our Paragons save the Multiverse?

We're gonna find out. We're gonna find out all the answers

in the final two hours of "Crisis On Infinite Earths"

airing January 14th

at 8 PM on The CW.

Man, I'm Kevin Smith.

Thanks for watching "Crisis Aftermath"

with us, everybody. Good night.

- Synced and corrected by Firefly - - www.addic7ed.com -