The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths was the Arrowverse's sixth crossover event and aired across five parts from December 2019 - January 2020.
The story played out across episodes of Supergirl, Batwoman, The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow, and featured plenty of fan-pleasing cameos. Those included Kevin Conroy as a live-action Batman, Brandon Routh's return as Superman, and Ezra Miller as The Flash (simpler times).
While it was made on a TV budget, Crisis on Infinite Earths received plenty of praise and delivered a much stronger take on the classic comic book story than this year's poorly-received animated movies.
Talking on his personal blog, Arrowverse architect Marc Guggenheim reflected on the event and confirmed there were once plans for the five-part story to receive a theatrical release.
"I don’t believe this is publicly known (again, statute of limitations) but we had been working with Warner Bros. to release all five hours of Crisis in movie theaters across the country," he explains. "The event - arranged through Fathom Events - was going to include special surprises like cast appearances and giveaways.
"[And] we’d also cut together a few bonuses that would have been screened in-between episodes and, yes, they would have included the deleted scenes - with all the VFX completed, the sound mixed, and the picture color-timed - that I’d mentioned," Guggenheim continued.
"At this point, you’re probably wondering why this event didn’t go forward. Well, the answer is that it was scheduled for April 2020. Covid ruins everything."
The deleted scenes he refers to reportedly featured Pariah (Tom Cavanagh) witnessing the destruction of Argo City and Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) being transformed into The Spectre.
One of the crossover's biggest moments came when Green Arrow was killed, a moment Stephen Amell expressed disappointment with in 2020 when he explained how the conditions on set negatively impacted his performance.
"They were trying to wrap Caity [Lotz] and Grant [Gustin] before I shot the coverage of the scene where I died. I blame no one for this, but this is a scene with me from Arrow that's taking place on Supergirl, with a Supergirl crew, with demands on both Grant and Caity. And they're trying to pull them so that Flash and Legends don't mess up their day the next day."
"Meanwhile, the f-cking Green Arrow was laying on a gurney trying to deliver his lines to something other than a f-cking tennis ball. So, there are lots of scenes where I'm acting and there just aren't other actors there, and that is just not an acceptable way of creating the best product, from my perspective."
Would you have watched Crisis on Infinite Earths on the big screen?