Warning: This article contains major spoilers for "Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part 2," the second installment of this year's Arrowverse crossover.
The second chapter of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" included two major guest stars in Tom Welling, who reprised his role as Clark Kent from Smallville, and Kevin Conroy, typically known as the voice of Batman, making a live-action appearance as a broken Bruce Wayne. In a Q&A, showrunners from across the Arrowverse spoke about these noteworthy guest turns.
The decision to see Welling again on the Kent farm in Smallville was an easy one, according to Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries. "I think the Tom Welling Clark Kent that we all kind of picture when we think of him is Clark on the farm," Dries noted. "So it made sense and the farm is still there. And Tom was joking when he was there ‘Oh, that cow recognized me.’ So it all felt very 10 years ago in a great way. And so to us it just felt natural that that’s kind of his natural environment where we’d see him.”
“Honestly [Welling] was terrific," added Marc Guggenheim the showrunner of the crossover. "We got on the phone with him and basically pitched him everything. And actually the scene… was already done so we just emailed it to him, and he’s like, ‘I love this.’ And he basically said to me, ‘You guys have basically written the one scene I can’t say no to.’ Which was really, really nice.“
While the episode also saw the introduction of Brandon Routh's Superman, there was no discussion about having Routh and Welling cross paths. “We never wrote [a scene where all three Supermen -- Routh, Welling, and Tyler Hoechlin, the Arrowverse's Superman -- appear together].... In terms of putting [Routh] and [Welling] in a scene together they were working at cross-purposes because we wanted [Routh] at The Daily Planet but we wanted [Welling] on the farm.”
Yet, the showrunners always planned to bring Routh's Clark Kent and his Arrowverse character Ray Palmer together. “We always knew that they would have to cross paths," said Guggenheim. "In fact, when we first pitched to [Routh] the idea of coming back as Superman… we included Clark Kent interacting… with Ray Palmer. That’s just too much fun.”
Meanwhile, Dries saw a wish fulfilled when Conroy came on to play Bruce Wayne. “I think for me, Kate getting to meet Bruce Wayne, or a version of Bruce Wayne, is something, obviously, we’ve been wanting to do or dreamed about doing [on Batwoman], and so to be able to find a way to do it felt like such a treat," Dries shared. "And then [Kate] coming face to face with this [Bruce Wayne], who’s already been there, done that, and she’s just starting off [as a superhero], it felt really poignant for this chapter in her life to come up against him."
Dries also couldn't say enough good things about Conroy's work. "He’s such a good actor," Dries complimented. "He really is dramatic. He looks the part. He feels the part. He has the gravitas. Those scenes to me just really came together."
And those scenes will be pivotal to Kate Kane's story when Batwoman returns from its mid-season hiatus. "Kate just looked at her future in the mirror and is like, ‘is this who I’m going to become?’ And that’s why it’s so important that she’s establishing this relationship with Kara who can kind of talk her off the ledge and say, ‘no, that’s not who you are.'" Dries continued, "It was something that I felt like we can take away from "Crisis" and play out in [Batwoman] as a new conflict for [Kate]."
Another return in Part 2 was that of the Lazarus Pits, the Fountain of Youth-like entities that can resurrect the dead but don't bring the formerly deceased's soul back too. After Oliver Queen's untimely demise in Part 1, Mia Queen, Barry Allen, and Sara Lance find a Pit and use it to resurrect Oliver. However, by the end of the episode, they've encountered some serious complications.
The showrunners decided to use a Lazarus Pit to bring back Oliver because of fans' familiarity with them. "We know what the effects are, we’re setting up what happens when you go in the Pit," Arrow showrunner Beth Schwartz said. "So it’s not just an easy transformation that you go in the Pit and then you’re back. We all know what happens to people when they go in the Pit."
Legends of Tomorrow showrunner Keto Shimizu added that because Sara Lance was resurrected by a Lazarus Pit herself, using one to resurrect Oliver raised the stakes for her."Sara [has] first-hand experience that… gives her some real skin in this game of how and whether to use it," Shimizu explained. "And she is definitely an authority on it…. And again it’s another reminder for us of how far she’s come, which for this whole event is really important for her arc."
Plus, with things not exactly going as planned with Oliver's resurrection, Sara's concerns about Barry and Mia's plan are validated. Guggenheim noted that moving into the crossover's third episode, "The complication that you saw at the end of hour two is just another confirmation that [Sara] should have maybe trusted her original instincts that things are not working out quite the way Barry and Mia had hoped [with using a Lazarus Pit to bring Oliver back].”
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" begins Sunday, Dec. 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Supergirl, then continues in Batwoman on Monday, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and in The Flash on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. After the winter hiatus, the crossover will conclude on Tuesday, Jan. 14 in Arrow at 8 p.m. ET/PT and in DC's Legends of Tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET/PT.