Eagle-eyed fans eagerly anticipating this season’s ‘Crisis’ Crossover event may have noticed that in the original logo for ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ released by the CW, there was a subtle and odd difference to what the logo eventually looked like in the end. Apparently it all had to do with spoilers and odd marketing rules. In the original logo (see above), every letter had a major hero from one of the ongoing series pictured within, with Sara Lance being in the “C,” the Flash is in the “R,” The Monitor is in the first “I,” Supergirl is in the “S,” Batwoman is in the second “I,” and then, oddly, instead of Oliver Queen in the second “S,” there was the arrowhead from the ‘Arrow’ opening instead of the star himself. Eventually, it changed and Oliver Queen was in the second “S,” but the mystery (though small in importance) remained.
Now we have some answers from Arrowverse Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim himself thanks to a question posted to him on Twitter:
At first I was told only actors appearing in all five hours could be in the main title card. Stephen, as you now know, wasn’t in Hour 5 (a fact I obviously couldn’t spoil). Then the legal eagles figured out a workaround. Even I dont fully understand it all, but I’m glad they did. https://t.co/VtoecIcF9A
— Marc Guggenheim (@mguggenheim) January 17, 2020
Here’s the quote from the Tweet:
“At first I was told only actors appearing in all five hours could be in the main title card. Stephen, as you now know, wasn’t in Hour 5 (a fact I obviously couldn’t spoil). Then the legal eagles figured out a workaround. Even I don’t fully understand it all, but I’m glad they did”
So it seems that there was some rule (which I still do not fully understand why Guggenheim and company were beholden to) that claimed only actors who were in all 5 episodes of the crossover could appear in the logo, hence why Oliver was initially left off. And of course the producers could not explain why this was all going on before the episodes aired, because revealing that Oliver was not in the fifth episode would have been a definite spoiler for the fans who were already expecting the Emerald Archer to die in the cross-over. Rumor has it that Oliver’s narration in the closing of the fifth episode might be what allowed them to eventually use his face in the logo, as it meant Stephen Amell was technically “in” the episode thanks to his voice-over work. Other fans asked why The Monitor was in the logo when he was not in all 5 episodes, but Guggenheim quickly pointed out that the Monitor may not have been in them all, but LaMonica Garrett was, as he also played the Anti-Monitor.
Did you notice the lack of Oliver in the logo originally or when they changed it? Did it bother you at all to see the arrowhead there instead of Amell’s face? Feel free to share your thoughts on the odd mystery and resolution in the comments below!
Source: TV Line
