Did Legacies Rule Out An Arrow-verse Connection After Crisis On Infinite Earths?

legacies season 2 hope danielle rose russell the cw
(Image credit: The CW)

Spoilers ahead for the Season 2 winter premiere of Legacies on The CW, called "I Couldn't Have Done This Without You," and the Arrow-verse's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover.

The CW was recently rocked by the five-part mega Arrow-verse crossover that ended with Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Black Lightning, the forthcoming Superman & Lois, and the Arrow spinoff (if that happens) sharing a world known as Earth Prime. Naturally, these massive connections raise the question of whether more CW series could connect to the Arrow-verse, and one star was on board for a Supernatural crossover. Now, however, did Legacies rule out a connection to the Arrow-verse with its "Crisis on Infinite Earths" commentary in the winter premiere?

The Arrow-verse crossover kinda sorta got a shoutout on Legacies thanks to Lizzie joining MG to read some comic books, with a massive volume of the legendary DC Comics "Crisis on Infinite Earths" arc that MG insisted should be called a "graphic novel." Lizzie seemed more into "Crisis" than viewers probably expected, though she wasn't entirely complimentary. She shared her thoughts on "Crisis on Infinite Earths," saying this:

So you get to see all of these amazing alternate universes but then eventually everything just resets back to normal and the heroes don't even remember any of it? Lame!

Amen, Lizzie! As a longtime Arrow-verse viewer, I'm not thrilled with the combination of all The CW's superhero shows into one universe, mostly because it rewrites histories, overlooks a whole lot of Earths that were erased with a whole lot of people, and raises some questions about why the heroes aren't constantly going to call for some Super help. Lizzie's commentary on DC Comics' "Crisis" seems to suggest that Legacies has no connection to the Arrow-verse's "Crisis."

Admittedly, the Arrow-verse did a semi-reset that meant everybody except the Paragons and people J'onn J'onzz helped out didn't remember their lives before Earth Prime, so technically the people at the Salvatore School wouldn't remember the Crisis. Marv Wolfman, a.k.a. the original "Crisis" writer, had a cameo in the crossover, so we can even imagine that he wrote the comics arc on an Earth Prime including the Salvatore School of Legacies.

As much fun as that may be to imagine, it falls apart when one considers that neither Lizzie nor MG nor anybody else has mentioned any superheroes existing in their universe, so it's probably pretty safe to say that Legacies doesn't exist on Earth Prime. Now that the entire Arrow-verse and even the previously unconnected Black Lightning exist on Earth Prime, there aren't really reasons for the heroes to visit other Earths.

Even if Legacies could exist elsewhere in what remains of the multiverse, which is a very big if, I'd say that viewers shouldn't count on any of the Arrow-verse heroes mixing it up with the witches, vampires, and werewolves of Legacies. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Isn't the Arrow-verse big enough now without throwing more of The CW into the mix? Sure, Arrow is a couple weeks away from ending, but Superman & Lois is joining the lineup, and Arrow is airing a backdoor pilot for a potential spinoff as its penultimate episode.

Legacies is just fine on its own. After all, it's the latest show in its own universe, thanks to The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, and fans can always look forward to more crossovers between those casts of characters without expecting anything of the Arrow-verse variety.

Catch new episodes of Legacies on The CW Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET in the midseason TV lineup.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).