Black Lightning boss reveals The Flash and Batwoman crossovers that never happened

After "Crisis on Infinite Earths," Black Lightning showrunner Salim Akil started thinking up ideas for potential Arrowverse crossovers.

Prior to last year's crossover, Black Lightning took place on a different earth from The Flash and DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Thankfully, the CW's five-part Arrowverse event changed that. Not only did Cress Williams' lightning-power hero appear in two episodes, but the epic crossover ended with all the network's superhero shows (save Stargirl) merging onto one planet, Earth Prime. That meant it would be easier for Black Lightning to cross over with the CW's other superhero shows, at least storytelling-wise. (Real-world logistics were still a major obstacle because Black Lightning shot in Atlanta and the other Arrowverse series filmed in Vancouver.)

Aside from an offscreen assist from the Flash (Grant Gustin), Black Lightning didn't get a chance to take advantage of being on Earth Prime before it ended because the COVID-19 pandemic made crossovers impossible. Which is a shame because Akil and the Black Lightning writers' room had already started brainstorming possible crossovers, in particular with The Flash.

"In our minds, it seemed like the Flash and Black Lightning had really connected [in 'Crisis'] and we certainly wanted to have something with the Flash," Akil told EW in a recent interview about the series finale. "We also thought it would be interesting to, in some way, have Flash and his wife, Iris [Candice Patton], come to dinner and Barry reveals he was raised by a Black family. To finally see some of that come out, we wanted to have someone say like, 'Hey, Barry, go put on some music,' and Barry puts on some of the deepest soul you can find and they think, 'Oh, maybe he's trying to impress us.' So fun things like that and then we [would find] out some deeper things about who he really is. Of course, crime-fighting and that sort of thing."

Beyond that, Akil also saw some possibilities with Batwoman too. "We even thought about Thunder and Grace having a crossover with Batwoman," he said. "We thought that could be interesting. At that time, we really throwing out a lot of stuff."

While neither of these came to pass while Black Lightning was on the air, there's still a chance we could see Jefferson hang out with the Flash some day. Williams recently told EW that Gustin's Arrowverse show asked if he would be interested in guest-starring at some point.

"I have had people from The Flash reach out, asking if I'd come do some work with them," said Williams, stressing that nothing is confirmed and it's still too early to say if this will happen or not. "One of my favorite scenes of doing this character was the scene between me and [Barry] in the library [on the Waverider in "Crisis on Infinite Earths."] So the thought of being able to go back and do an episode here or an episode there? Oh yeah, no, I'm down for that."

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• Arrowverse's David Ramsey talks Diggle's 'cosmic' destiny and directing Superman & Lois