Posted in: Arrow, Batwoman, Black Lightning, CW, TV | Tagged: arrowverse, crisis, lex luthor, michael rosenbaum, smallville
Crisis: Michael Rosenbaum & Jon Cryer's Lex Luthors Nearly Met
Marc Guggenheim had an idea for Michael Rosenbaum's & Jon Cryer's Lex Luthors to interact during the Arrowverse's "Crisis on Infinite Earths."
Article Summary
- Marc Guggenheim had some ideas for Rosenbaum & Cryer's Lex Luthors to meet in 'Crisis'.
- Arrowverse's 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' crossover featured many DC characters.
- Michael Rosenbaum declined 'Crisis' return, sharing his reasons on social media.
- Idea scrapped after Rosenbaum's decision not to reprise his Lex Luthor role.
Cutting across Supergirl, Batwoman, The Flash, Arrow, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow and running between December 2019 and January 2020, the five-part Arrowverse mega-crossover event "Crisis on Infinite Earths" featured a ton of appearances from several DC Comics-related series. So you can only imagine how excited Smallville fans were when they heard that Tom Welling and Erica Durance were returning for the event. Of course, with Welling & Durance, fans assumed that Michael Rosenbaum would also be returning – and with it brought hopes of Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor and Jon Cryer's Lex Luthor meeting each other for the first time – and sizing each other up to see if they were "Luthor-worthy."
But Rosenbaum put that speculation to rest in September 2019, announcing that he would not be returning and explained what he considered to be professional disrespect on a number of levels caused him to pass – here's a look:
In his most recent Substack post (LegalDispatch), Arrowverse co-mastermind Marc Guggenheim shared some insight into what could've been if a deal could've been brokered between Rosenbaum and the studio for "Crisis" – and yes, it would involve a meeting of the two Lex Luthors. "Well, here's the thing. By the time we'd engaged with Michael [Rosenbaum] about appearing in 'Crisis' – thanks in huge part to Stephen Amell's efforts – we'd already shot the 'Smallville' reunion scene in Hour 2. Nevertheless, I was eager to get Michael's Lex into the story if I could, so my brain started working on options that could be fit into the episodes that we were still shooting." And that's when Guggenheim added the detail that's still breaking our hearts. "I forget the story impetus for them, but I noodled with a version where Michael's Lex would interact with Jon Cryer's Lex, which I think would've been quite entertaining had it come to pass."