Audrey Marie Anderson, the former
The Walking Dead star who first appeared on
Arrow in the 2013 episode "Unfinished Business," will reprise her role as Lyla Michaels in "Crisis on Infinite Earths" -- but with a twist. Lyla will trade in her black ARGUS tactical suit for a super-suit in the mega-crossover, transforming into Harbinger, her superhero identity from the comics. In the original "Crisis on Infinite Earths," Harbinger was a baby when she was taken in by The Monitor. By the time we meet her, she has lived a lifetime as essentially his daughter before being possessed and forced to betray and kill him.
The costume doesn't have the strange cuts and one-of-a-kind helmet that Harbinger did in the comics, but it looks more or less like the most comics-accurate version you could get within the world of the Arrowverse (and without making Anderson look a little ridiculous, as some things are really only ever meant to exist on the comics page). The skirt and some of the design work is very reminiscent of the comics version, although the more practical top (and her lack of a helmet) would make her harder to identify quickly as Harbinger, if we hadn't already had more than half a decade of Anderson's take on Lyla Michaels.
"Lyla Michaels as Harbinger is a key component of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths that we were determined to honor in our crossover," executive producer Marc Guggenheim said in a statement.
"What makes this particularly satisfying for us is that we introduced Lyla Michaels and her Harbinger codename all the way back in Arrow Season 1."
Lyla was originally introduced as John Diggle's ex-wife, but the two reconciled and had a daughter, whom they named after the then-recently-deceased Sara Lance. Not long after that, Barry Allen accidentally broke reality in the "Flashpoint" storyline and one of the ripple effects that remained in place even after he fixed it was that Sara had been transformed into John Diggle, Jr., one of the stars of the flash-forwards which are
the setting for a planned Arrow spinoff after the series is done.
It is not immediately clear whether Lyla will become the Harbinger -- as in, this is Earth-1's Lyla taking on a new role -- or whether Harbinger will be a Lyla from an alternate Earth. Either one seems plausible enough in "Crisis on Infinite Earths." It's easy to lean toward Harbinger being a Lyla doppelganger given how many there are in the story, but since
Arrow's last season will center on Oliver Queen working with The Monitor in order to save the multiverse from the Crisis, nothing seems off the table.