Todd Helbing Has Disappointing News For Future Arrowverse Crossovers - Exclusive
This article contains major spoilers for the Season 2 finale of "Superman & Lois."
If in-laws are good for one thing, it's giving news to you straight. Throughout Seasons 1 and 2 of "Superman & Lois," it wasn't abundantly clear whether or not the series is connected to the larger Arrowverse worlds we've come to know and love. Certain references from Diggle about Oliver seemed to point to a connected universe, but it was still murky on whether or not he was the Oliver we met back in "Arrow." Gotta love the multiverse.
Thanks to General Lane, we finally have our answer: "Superman & Lois" is not connected to the shows that came before. In this world, Superman is the only powered superhero. What does that mean for the future of the Arrowverse and crossovers?
Todd Helbing broke down the decision to separate the show from the Arrowverse during an exclusive interview with Looper, and he gave fans some bad news about the future of crossovers.
What's next for what's left of the Arrowverse?
With the sad cancelation of "Batwoman" and "Legends of Tomorrow" and "Supergirl" ending last year, Helbing isn't wholly confident that there will be a ton of familiar faces heading to the show, but he's not entirely ruling it out.
"With General Lane's speech there about Superman being the only hero, it might be a little tricky to do crossovers in the way that we've done them historically. I don't know. What's going to happen is, if there's an opportunity ... I love Grant [Gustin]," Helbing said. "Grant's a friend. I have connections to that show ["The Flash"], but I would say if there is one, 'Flash' would probably be my first call. It's a little tricky now to do all this, but we'll see what happens." Although any cameos would be different iterations from the heroes we love, it's not outside the realm of possibility.
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" seemingly eliminated the Multiverse, but it seems like that's not exactly the case with this revelation. On how this twist affects some of those storylines, and if it's safe to say that this Superman is different from the Superman that we met on "Supergirl" and the crossovers, Helbing confirmed the assumption. "We're a different planet, a different Earth. The Superman that you saw in all the crossovers is not the same as the Superman on our planet," he explained. "It's clearly a doppelganger. Part of how this all folds in the big picture with DC is ultimately a DC decision. I'm sure there'll be more clarity in the future, but as of now, we're a different Earth in the DC Universe."
Rest in pieces, crossover episodes
Here's the most pressing question that fans really want to know: Will there be major crossover events in the future? Unfortunately, given that most Arrowverse shows aren't airing anymore, Helbing isn't confident about that. "That version of what we did is probably [done] because we don't have all of those characters anymore. [From] those shows, all the actors are going to go on and do different projects, or life is going to make them busy," he said. "It's hard to speculate other than they're still comic book shows. There are guests in comic book shows all the time. I don't know if we'll have exactly the same thing — it's hard to perceive [what could happen in] the superhero genre." A minute of silence for epic crossover events
The producer isn't against it, and he has his eye on the future of The CW and whatever it may bring. He added, "It would be great if, four years from now, there was a completely different second wave of this. We could do those. They were a lot of fun, but it's hard to say."
The Season 2 finale of "Superman & Lois" is now streaming on The CW.