The upcoming Arrowverse crossover Elseworlds introduces both Batwoman and Gotham City, but whatever happened to Batman?
While Bruce Wayne has been name-dropped on Arrow, it is confirmed Batman won’t be appearing in the crossover, with it explained he has been missing for three years.
“Our approach is: What does Gotham look like after the Batman has been gone for three years? So if you have the law and order, protector, and hope gone, what happens as a result?” Caroline Dries teased to EW.com, who consulted on the crossover and will executive produce the potential Batwoman series. “Some people are thriving in his absence because now they can start to do their own thing without the oversight. A lot of other people are suffering and they’re losing hope, and the city itself and infrastructure is falling apart. So it’s not a happy place. Our guys walk into a grimy, scary Gotham.”
“It’s a dead city,” Marc Guggenheim, writer and producer of Arrow, said. “The way I sort of described it to Stephen [Amell] is, it’s there but for the grace of God goes Star City. It’s the worst case scenario. The reason no one talks about Gotham is the city might as well be dead. It’s practically a ghost town.”
It’s noted the Elseworlds crossover will see Barry, Oliver and Kara argue about Batman and Gotham City.
“Oliver is like, ‘He’s not real! They’ve made him up! It’s a hoax just to scare the citizens.’ Barry is flabbergasted by that and all he wants to do in Gotham is meet Batman. It’s a pretty funny scene,” Grant Gustin said.
Amell added, “Oliver is not enthused about the idea that there might be some other vigilante out there.”
The three-night Arrowverse Elseworlds crossover airs Sunday, Dec. 9 with The Flash, followed by Monday, Dec. 10 with Arrow, and concludes Tuesday, Dec. 11 with Supergirl also featuring Stephen Amell, Grant Gistin, Ruby Rose as Batwoman, Jeremy Davies as Dr. John Deegan of Arkham Asylum, Cassandra Jean Amell as Nora Fries, LaMonica Garret is playing The Monitor, an extraterrestrial being of infinite power, with John Wesley Shipp reprising his ’90s The Flash.
