Crisis on Earth-X

• Note: Despite being credited, Katie McGrath and Odette Annable do not appear in the Supergirl episode; David Ramsey, Willa Holland, Katie Cassidy and Paul Blackthorne do not appear in the Arrow episode; and Jesse L. Martin does not appear in The Flash episode.

Planning for the yearly Arrowverse crossover began in December 2016, with Arrow showrunner Wendy Mericle saying, "We actually sort of do, believe it or not, have a concept for what we want to do for next year's crossover. It's crazy."[12] By February 2017, planning began for a true four-way series crossover. Because each series was renewed for an additional season, the producers could plan production schedules to incorporate the crossover. Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg said, "One of the big things we learned from ["Heroes Join Forces"], which made ["Invasion!"] slightly easier, was building in shut-down days, where shows just went dark. The single hardest factor in doing the crossovers is actors' availability because the shows keep going on. You're basically juggling four shows' worth of schedules."[13] That May, The CW president Mark Pedowitz confirmed that there were no plans to incorporate Black Lightning in the crossover, as it was not part of the Arrowverse at that time and was scheduled to debut in the middle of the 2017–18 television season.[14]

In September 2017, it was revealed that the title of the crossover would be "Crisis on Earth-X" and that Ray Terrill (The Ray) would make his live-action debut in the Arrowverse, ahead of appearing in the animated web series, Freedom Fighters: The Ray, along with other characters and concepts from that series.[15] Russell Tovey also voices the character in Freedom Fighters.[5] In 2019, executive producer Marc Guggenheim call "Crisis on Earth-X" the "gold standard" of the yearly crossovers.[16]

In June 2017, Guggenheim noted that it would be hard to top "Invasion!"'s threat of aliens, so this crossover would aim to "increase the emotional stakes and the emotional payoffs".[17] The following month, Mericle added that the crossover would be "very much rooted in the DCU."[18] At the Television Critics Association press tour in August 2017, Pedowitz said that the crossover would involve romance, with Berlanti adding, "our way of making the show bigger this year was to go even more personal, so it's a big life event for a few different people on the show. There are many life events that happen."[19] In September 2017, in a statement revealing the crossover's title, Guggenheim and Kreisberg said that the crossover was conceived "to be evocative of the annual Justice League/Justice Society [comic book series] crossovers we grew up with and looked forward to as kids."[15] The story of the crossover was conceived by Kreisberg and Guggenheim. The teleplay for Supergirl's episode was written by showrunners Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller, Arrow's by Mericle and Ben Sokolowski, The Flash's by showrunner Todd Helbing, and Legends of Tomorrow's by showrunner Phil Klemmer and Keto Shimizu.[2]

Filming of the four episodes began on September 22, 2017.[15] Supergirl's episode was directed by Larry Teng, Arrow's by James Bamford, The Flash's by Dermott Downs, and Legend of Tomorrow's by Gregory Smith.[2]

Blake Neely, primary composer of all four series, composed the two-and-a-half-hour score for the crossover in eight days at The Bridge Recording Studio in Glendale, California.[20] La-La Land Records released the soundtrack physically on June 5, 2018, in a limited run.[21] WaterTower Music also released it digitally on June 15, 2018.[22][23]

"Free Stress Test" by Professor Murder, "Justice" by Misun, "All Eyes On You" by St. Lucia, "By the Stream" by Tom Hillock & Nicolas Boscovic, "Love Is Emotional" by Neil Finn, "String Quartet No. 62 in C Major, Op. 76, No. 3, Hob. III:77, "Emperor": II. Poco Adagio, Cantabile" by Kodály Quartet, and "Runnin' Home to You" from the musical crossover "Duet" performed by Melissa Benoist are heard in the first part of the crossover but not included in the soundtrack.[24]

All music is composed by Blake Neely, Nathaniel Blume, Daniel James Chan, and Sherri Chung.

The crossover began with Supergirl and Arrow on November 27, 2017, and concluded on The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow on November 28, all on The CW. Arrow, which normally aired on Thursdays at 9 pm, moved to Monday at 9 pm for the crossover and did not air an additional episode on November 30. Pedowitz stated that they decided to have the crossover occur over two nights, as opposed to the four nights of "Invasion!", because The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow were already paired together on The CW's schedule, and "it would be better and tighter in terms of storytelling to make it like a two-night, four-hour miniseries. We thought this was a tight, concise way of doing it."[29] Guggenheim added, "We're really approaching this big four-part event as two back-to-back two-hour movies, and I think when you look at it through that lens, it becomes less important for the Supergirl episode to feel like a Supergirl episode and the Arrow episode to feel like an Arrow episode, which was always our approach in the past."[19]

All four episodes and the behind-the-scenes featurette "Inside the Crossover: Crisis on Earth-X", were released on Blu-ray and DVD in Region 1 along with the rest of Arrow's sixth season on August 14, 2018,[30] with The Flash's fourth season on August 23,[31] with Supergirl's third season on September 18,[32] and with Legends of Tomorrow's third season on September 25.[33] The four episodes were released together on a separate DVD on September 3, 2018 in Region 2,[34] and September 5 in Region 4.[35] Unlike the previous crossover, "Invasion!", the episodes of "Crisis on Earth-X" were not released as a seamless cut; this was due to "union rules regarding credit" according to Marc Guggenheim.[36]

Speaking about the crossover as a whole, Jesse Schedeen of IGN felt that "ultimately, 'Crisis on Earth-X' set a higher standard for what these crossovers can achieve than last year's 'Invasion!'".[40] Scott Mendelson of Forbes said the "Crisis on Earth-X" was "a better Justice League movie than the actual Justice League movie and in many ways was better or at least equal to the best MCU crossover events."[41] Rob Leane of Den of Geek thought the crossover was the "best crossover yet", saying, "It offers fresh ideas alongside heaps of fan service, and the special effects wizards behind the scenes make the limited TV budget feel like that of a massive movie."[42]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating, based on 14 reviews for the episode. The website's critical consensus reads, "Kicking off an Arrowverse crossover event, "Crisis On Earth-X, Part 1" offers viewers a fun outing with quirky characters preceding the action and tragedy to come."[43]

Schedeen gave the Supergirl episode an 8.1 out of 10. While he felt that the Supergirl episode "clearly isn't in much of a hurry to get where it's going", Schedeen said it did "prove to be a very entertaining start to the crossover." Ultimately, the episode "did, however, make the most of this massive pairing of heroes, delivering an endless stream of banter and character drama before transitioning into an epic battle royale. There are certainly worse ways to kick off a crossover."[44] Caroline Siede at The A.V. Club awarded the episode a "B+" rating. She said the episode "isn't a particularly great episode of Supergirl, but then again it isn't really trying to be. And as the first hour of an ambitious four-part Arrowverse movie, it's hard to ask for anything more."[45] Kayti Burt of Collider gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars, stating, "I was wildly impressed with the storytelling ambitious 'Crisis on Earth-X' has shown so far. There were some narrative missteps, but this is like nothing we have ever seen on-screen before: a true comic book-style crossover event that ties hours of superhero serials together in one epic story."[46]

Rotten Tomatoes reported an 89% approval rating, based on 9 reviews for the episode.[47]

Schedeen gave the Arrow episode a 7 out of 10, saying that the episode "struggled to find that balance between character drama and plot progression, as well as in establishing stakes big enough to support such a massive crossover in the first place. But for all its flaws, at least this episode still included some entertaining moments and a generally strong portrayal of its twisted villains."[48] The A.V. Club's Allison Shoemaker gave the episode a "B" rating. She thought it was "difficult to judge how successful this episode of Arrow is because it's neither an episode of Arrow nor a complete story," but concluded, "it's a lot of fun, kind of dumb, and just not as exciting as what came before. Someone has to check those boxes and set up what comes next, and it seems that this time, Arrow drew the 'event' short straw."[49]

Rotten Tomatoes reported an 89% approval rating, based on 9 reviews for the episode.[50]

Schedeen awarded The Flash's episode a 9.2 out of 10, noting that while part 1 had "a slow start" and part 2 gave "a fairly underwhelming follow-up... the crossover finally seemed to click" in part 3.[51] Scott Von Doviak at The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B+" rating, stating "Even a lesser installment like this one features the spectacle of the Flash and The Ray battling the Red Tornado, as well as the appealing non-superpowered Nazi-fighting team of Iris and Felicity. For the most part, I've felt like a kid coming home with a fresh stack of comics, and I can think of no higher praise than that."[52] Mike Cecchini of Den of Geek gave it 4 out of 5 stars. He wrote that while "'mirror universe Nazis' don't make for the most nuanced of villains, and when you're using concentration camp imagery, well, you'd better make sure you're not being exploitative," The Flash's episode "completely embraces its lunacy in ways that I don't even think those first two chapters dreamed of."[53]

Schedeen gave the final episode an 8.5 out of 10 rating. The episode "didn't have quite the urgency it needed during the final showdown between good and evil," but "did make the most of Professor Stein's heroic sacrifice and its emotional fallout."[54] Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A" rating, stating "No piece of live-action superhero media has captured the feeling of a comic-book crossover event like Crisis On Earth-X. With a huge cast of characters, a major death, and a final scene taking big heroes in bold new directions, Crisis delivers the thrills, the twists, and the inspiration that should come from a superhero story with this massive scope."[55] Jim Dandy from Den of Geek rated the episode 5 out of 5 stars. He wrote, "This year's was an objectively wonderful hour of DC television, but it also moved the season's story along for Legends in a meaningful way, and provided significant character development for Jax and Sara. It gave Franz Drameh and Victor Garber a chance to stretch their acting wings, and it closed out a timely, wall-to-wall entertaining four hours of television."[56] Collider's Carla Day gave the Legends episode 5 stars out of 5, saying the crossover was "leaps and bounds better than any of the previous crossovers." She went on to say that "It set the standard high for all future crossovers in the story, character interactions, and fight scenes."[57]