Interview: EP Butch Lukic Talks Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Trilogy

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths executive producer Butch Lukic about the final film in the trilogy of animated movies. Lukic discussed some of the cameos, the end of the Tomorrowverse, and more. It is available now digitally and is out on 4K and Blu-ray on July 23.

“Now fully revealed as the ultimate threat to existence, the ANTI-MONITOR wages an unrelenting attack on the surviving Earths that struggle for survival in a pocket universe. One-by-one, these worlds, and all their inhabitants are vaporized! On the planets that remain, even time itself is shattered, and heroes from the past join the Justice League and their rag-tag allies against the epitome of evil. But as they make their last stand, will the sacrifice of the superheroes be enough to save us all?​” says the synopsis.

Tyler Treese: One thing that really impressed me is just how much these three films really helped contextualize what we had seen in the movies prior. It makes me want to revisit them and see them through a new lens. So, what are you most proud of about with the Tomorrowverse as a whole now that we’ve capped off this really grand experiment with Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three?

Butch Lukic: Well, I think what you just mentioned, obviously, it’s being able to tie things in, the other movies and build them, and then you find out why that was there originally where it might not have made much sense, but it made the characters a lot more important. Once we got to the finale, three movies, obviously then things started to become clear. I liken the whole lot [to] a jigsaw puzzle. Certain things to certain characters show up, and then you find out later what their importance is to the whole storyline.

Obviously, this took a lot of planning, and Jim Krieg was talking about some happy accidents that occurred along the way. How was it kind of finding that balance of still being creative and letting yourself explore, but also planning was necessary or this could have gone totally off the rails?

The planning, me and Jim really had the first three or four movies. We knew what we wanted to do there. Then the others, the last three or four before we got to Crisis, we still didn’t know how we were gonna approach Crisis. All that was up in the air until we got to it. I think it was the first three films or four gave us some answers that we didn’t see before of where we needed to take a character here or there and move them towards the Crisis storyline.

Always the only one that we knew we had to get in, as being very important to Crisis, was Supergirl. So that was the only one slated. We’re gonna do a Supergirl story at the time, but we didn’t know exactly what was involved. So even like the miracle machine being involved in that story, even then when we got to that, we didn’t know how important until Jim started writing Crisis out that we could use that device as something that was gonna work in the Crisis universe.

Supergirl’s arc is so effective here and the film Legion of Super-Heroes was a really strong introduction to her. Culd you just speak to Meg Donnelly’s performance? Because she really brings a lot and gets people invested in Supergirl early, and then we really see that pay off in Part Two and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three.

We told Meg we wanted her to be unlikeable in the beginning once when we first met her and everything, that she’s pretty much self-centered. Then, from there, obviously, the audience has to fall in love with her and be on her side. So that’s what we gave her as far as acting advice, and she pulled it off. Obviously, throughout the movies and definitely by the end of the first, Legion, we were on her side.

Even in between when she was still being a little bit tough on everybody and attitude. So I think her acting chops definitely pulled that off for us, especially going and finding out later what was the gap, why she didn’t end up on, Earth sooner than when she was supposed to. Then we built that backstory with Crisis Part Two, which is good stuff.

Obviously, The Flash is central to setting up the whole Tomorrowverse, but we also see Constantine be a really great part of these movies. So how long did you guys always have this sort of idea that those two would tie back to the past DC animated work?

That was five years ago. From the start of this, when we knew we were gonna do the 10 movies, the dictate was that Constantine has to be involved. The Constantine from the previous universe. So that’s kind of where it all ended up tying in, which you obviously see in Part Three how and why things have to be the way they are is all through what he ended up doing in the previous universe. So, yeah, that was something we preplanned way back, way back. We just didn’t know when and how we were gonna get him in and introduce him.

There are so many great cameos here in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three. There are definitely some scenes where you wanna pause the screen and look at everything. It was really nice seeing Batman Beyond show up, and I know you worked in the art department for that show. So how special was it incorporating that history and your decades of experience into this three part event as well?

Definitely, we were gonna bring back Batman Beyond because there’s always been talk of wanting to do a Batman Beyond animated film or revise the series, but nothing’s happened. So I figured this will help hopefully, and we get Will [Friedle] back in to do the voice. It’ll be great and they’ll have a great time. I just wish he could have been in it more, but because it’s such an epic story, there’s so many other characters that are involved. But yeah, it was nice to finally get Batman Beyond animated back on screen.

One of the scenes that’s really gone viral is the sequence between Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three. That was such a wonderful goodbye to Batman: The Animated Series. Obviously, Kevin’s passing makes it all the more emotional to watch and all the more significant, but how was it really coming up with that goodbye? Because it’s really just perfectly done.

The thing is, we just were planning to do that scene and, obviously, a sequence with Joker and Batman. I figured fighting on the rooftop would do it. Plus, it helps that the antimatter waves are approaching, but it’s just to show fans that period again. Intentionally, we weren’t planning — obviously, for the film, it was intended to be the end. We didn’t know at the time [that it was Conroy’s final performance] when we were recording with Kevin. You know, we were joking around with him, “This is where we kill Batman off, ha ha ha.” He laughed, too, knowing that it was just for the film, big deal. Sadly, it became his final performance, unfortunately.

Thanks to Butch Lukic for taking the time to talk about Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three.

Tyler Treese

Tyler Treese is ComingSoon and SuperHeroHype's Editor-in-Chief. An experienced entertainment journalist, his work can be seen at Sherdog, Fanbyte, Rock Paper Shotgun, and more. When not watching the latest movies, Treese enjoys mixed martial arts and playing with his Shiba Inu, Kota.