Warning: SPOILERS for Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One are ahead!
Rather than try to squeeze a Crisis on Infinite Earths adaptation into just one movie, DC’s Tomorrowverse timeline is wisely spreading out its take on the iconic crossover event across three movies. Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One was released earlier this month, and while it stood to reason there would be unresolved plot threads by the end, the way this first chapter wrapped up was, to me, reminiscent of the ending of Avengers: Infinity War. However, as I learned from some behind-the-scenes talent on behalf of CinemaBlend, Part One wasn’t influenced by one of the most popular of the Marvel movies in order, but it did borrow
For those who haven’t seen Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One yet, the heroes recruited by The Monitor to destroy the antimatter wave eradicating universes manage to construct a series of vibrational towers on the remaining Earths meant to prevent said wave from wiping them out. Initially, it appears they are successful, but immediately afterwards, Legion of Super-Heroes members Dawnstar and Brainiac 5, among other heroes, start disappearing, so you can’t blame me for thinking back to when Thanos snapped his Infinity Stones-powered fingers at the end of Avengers: Infinity War and erased half of all life in the universe.
I brought up the similarity to Crisis Part One producer Butch Lukic, whom I interviewed alongside writer Jim Krieg and director Jeff Wamester, and he quickly declared it as nothing more than coincidental, saying:
No, that wasn’t any inspiration… I haven’t [watched Infinity War] because I don’t want it to be following that. So if it’s similar, that’s only because alright, you have to destroy a planet. I’d say Independence Day was more of an influence.
Although Independence Day, whom some of you may consider to be one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, doesn’t see people suddenly disappearing in front of their loved ones, it certainly delivers when it comes to delivering apocalyptic states involving an extraterrestrial threat. So Lukic, Krieg, Wamester and the rest of the creative talent used that as a influencing guide to crafting the animated Crisis on Infinite Earths adaptation beyond the original source material, but Avengers: Infinity War was not at the front of their minds.
Jim Krieg added later in the interview that when it comes to a story being told across multiple parts, cliffhangers on this scale are to be expected in various forms. As he put it:
I think that any time knowing that you have three parts, almost all of this movie, most of the threads are going to be left hanging. Because knowing that it’s a trilogy, it’s essentially an act one, and an act one basically introduces you to the characters and the jeopardy and asks the question, ‘What happens next?’ And the fact that there’s any tie-up at all in any of these threads is kind of interesting. I think that in some ways, you could just watch this movie and enjoy it without having to watch the other two, but certainly most of the impetus of the movie is to set up storylines and jeopardy that will hopefully pay off in Part Three.
The various superheroes disappearing is just one plot thread left to be followed up on in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two, with others including the now-elderly Barry Allen being sent back through his personal timeline again, learning about how Supergirl became Harbinger and tying these events back to the DC Animated Movie Universe timeline, with the John Constantine and Spectre from the short film Constantine: The House of Mystery both appearing in Part One. Butch Lukic also revealed that the Crisis trilogy will wrap up the Tomorrowverse, and this has been the plan from the start. So whatever these next two movies hold in store, once they’re both out, that’ll be the end of this particular continuity.
While we wait for more details on Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two and Part Three, including when they’ll both come out later this year, revisit all the Tomorrowverse movies up to Part One with a Max subscription. And as always, keep CinemaBlend as your main destination for learning all the biggest news on upcoming DC movies.