'Crisis On Infinite Earths' First Look: See Brandon Routh As 'Kingdom Come' Superman
With each passing day, the upcoming Arrowverse crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths gets bigger and bigger. Just recently, Smallville stars Tom Welling and Erica Durance were added to the growing cast of the television event that is being spread across Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, DC's Legends of Tomorrow and the new Batwoman series. The two are reprising their roles as Clark Kent and Lois Lane from the popular Superman prequel series, but there's another Superman variation popping up that is equally as cool.
Not too long ago, we learned that Superman Returns star Brandon Routh would be reprising his big screen role as the Man of Steel for Crisis on Infinite Earths, but the version he's playing is inspired by the DC Comics Kingdom Come storyline. Now we have the first official photo of the Brandon Routh Kingdom Come Superman straight from The CW. Check it out below.
Brandon Routh Kingdom Come Superman
For those who don't know, Kingdom Come is a famous Elseworlds storyline that is set in the future where traditional superheroes have gone by the wayside, deemed out of touch with the modern world, and amoral and irresponsible vigilantes have become much more prominent. The future setting explains why Superman has some gray hair sprouting a little bit, but we're still not sure exactly how Kingdom Come will come into play in the Crisis on Infinite Earths narrative.
In the comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths was a 12-issue maxiseries from April 1985 to March 1986, written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez. During the event, a villain known as The Anti-Monitor (the evil counterpart of The Monitor) starts to destroy the various versions of Earth that make up the DC Comics universes. This results in a call to action for many of the major DC superheroes, including Superman, Supergirl, and The Flash – though the latter two characters ended up dying in the battle in two of the most iconic moments in DC Comics history.
We won't see an exact adaptation of this storyline since not all the DC Comics characters are available to the Arrowverse, but since we'll likely see several different versions of Earth attacked by the Anti-Monitor, that's probably when we'll see this alternate version of Superman. Plus, we're also going to see Batman: The Animated Series voice star Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne, and there have been rumblings of Lynda Carter possibly appearing as the classic Wonder Woman too. There are likely plenty more surprises in store for this huge crossover, and fans have been asking for quite a lot from it, so it might be worth tuning into even if you're not watching any of the shows involved.
Here's another look at Brandon Routh as Superman from the actor's Instagram:
Here's how the five-part Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover will play out later this year and into 2020: