Crisis on Infinite Earths is a three-part culmination of the Tomorrow-verse, which means that a lot of the characters that would appear in the trilogy would have made an appearance in previous installments of the shared universe. Not only was this a way to get fans excited about cameos and a connected universe, but it also allowed a brilliant cost-cutting strategy to take hold as a part of the production of the three films.
Butch Lukic talked to Animation Magazine about how the story was adapted, including the one thing that saved the three Crisis films from tanking their budget completely. Lukic opened up about what exactly the production cycle of the films did to cut costs by as much as they did.
The characters of the films were set in stone way before the films went into production
Butch Lukic revealed that a lot of characters were designed in previous films keeping in mind that they would appear in the Crisis trilogy. he revealed to Animation Magazine:
“We were designing a lot of the characters in those previous movies so it wouldn’t kill our budget when we got here, but there were still a lot of characters to design that we never were able to use in the previous seven movies”
Throughout the production of films in the Tomorrow-verse, all characters were created keeping in mind that whatever Superman: Man of Tomorrow started was going to culminate with Crisis on Infinite Earths and its sequels. Therefore, when production started for the trilogy, a lot of characters were already in place, and the films had a headstart when it came to making the film, hence helping the project keep its budget in line.
Crisis on Infinite Earths brings the Tomorrow-verse to a close, as the animated DC Universe becomes a part of the DCU
The Tomorrow-verse was an all-new animated version of the DCAU, which started with Superman: Man of Tomorrow. This was before James Gunn took over as the head of DC, and began constructing his DCU, which will unite the games, animated works, and live-action stories coming out of DC properties under one banner, similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Tomorrow-verse brought forward a lot of stories that fans wanted to see adapted for a long time, including Crisis on Infinite Earths and The Long Halloween, which has been something that fans have been requesting through test screenings for a long time. As the DCAU marches toward being inculcated into the brand new DCU, the Tomorrow-verse marks the last era of independent stories from a wider franchise.
