Apparently, all this time it was the heroes of the Arrowverse they were asking to save them.

The CW announced today that Erica Durance, who played Lois Lane on the long-running Superman prequel Smallville, will be reprising her iconic role in The CW’s upcoming “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event. She’ll join her costar Tom Welling, who will return to his role as Clark Kent (EW has more on that news, which broke yesterday). While it’s unclear exactly how their characters will factor into the five-night crossover, the event promises to reveal exactly what their versions of Lois and Clark have been up to in the eight years since Smallville ended.

“For eight years, Arrow has stood on the shoulders of Smallville,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim said about Welling’s reprisal. “Simply put, there would be no Arrow, and no Arrowverse, without it. So when we first started talking about “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” our first, second and third priorities were getting Tom to reprise his iconic role as Clark Kent. To say that we’re thrilled would be a Superman-sized understatement.”

Superman fans certainly have no shortage of reasons to be excited about the event. Along with Welling and Durance’s involvement, Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch will also return as the Arrowverse’s Superman and Lois Lane, while DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’s Brandon Routh will also return to the role of Superman, seemingly playing a version influenced by Kingdom Come.

For those who don’t keep up with The CW’s slate of DCTV shows, the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover promises to be the biggest and most complex crossover in the network’s DC history by far. Spanning over five nights, the crossover includes characters from all six of the network’s superhero shows—Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Black Lightning. Seeds for the crossover were first sown last November, with the introduction of LaMonica Garrett’s Monitor in last year’s crossover. Since then, the Monitor has made occasional appearances throughout the Arrowverse, culminating in Arrow’s Season 7 finale, in which Oliver Queen left Star City to join him.


Photo by JSquared Photography

As for Durance, both her and Welling have appeared in other DCTV show’s post-Arrow. Welling has a memorable one-season role on Lucifer as Cain, while Durance took on the role of Kara’s mother Alura in Supergirl starting with the show’s third season.

“Crisis on Infinite Earths” promises to be massive—and that’s based on what we know about it, there’s plenty we still don’t. Keep your eyes on DCComics.com for more crossover news as it breaks, and be there for the first part of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” when it debuts Sunday, December 8th on Supergirl.