Naomi won't feature any Arrowverse crossovers in season 1

Just like the title suggests, Naomi is going to be all about Naomi.

The CW's new DC Comics drama stars Kaci Walfall as a teen who runs a Superman fan site and discovers that she may not be from Earth after a mysterious event involving the Man of Steel rocks her small Pacific Northwestern hometown. And while there's a major plot point involving Superman right from the jump in the series premiere, viewers shouldn't expect to see Superman & Lois star Tyler Hoechlin make an appearance, because there aren't going to be any Arrowverse crossovers — at least in the first season.

"In terms of crossovers, we're not thinking about that right now," executive producer Ava DuVernay said Thursday during a panel for the Television Critics Association's winter press tour. "She's on her own path, and I really think that this is the first part of the Naomi-verse, and that people need to be trying to cross over over here."

While DuVernay did tease "we will see what happens" in the future, she confirmed that "you won't see any crossovers season 1. That's not there. [Naomi] is firmly in her story and we are singularly focused on that journey."

And that journey will take Naomi past where her story currently is in the comics. The series is based on the DC character created by Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker, and Jamal Campbell in 2019, and while the first couple of episodes feature moments comic readers will recognize, DuVernay revealed that the rest of the season will divert from the source material in a big way. "We've got a lot of information in the first two episodes, which means we get to make up new, cool things. That's exactly what's happening," she said. "This thing is off and running."

The comic series Naomi: Season One is getting a sequel with the six-issue Naomi: Season Two (the first issue comes out March 8), but fans should think of that as a different version of the same character seen on the Naomi TV show. And DuVernay said comic writers Bendis and Walker are "not involved in a day-to-day way" on the TV series.

"They have been the epitome of the antithesis of toxic masculinity," she added. "They have said, 'This is our baby, and you take her, and you raise her in the way that you want.' They have been lovely in being very hands-off… That was something that they gave us as a gift as artists and creators to say, 'Look, we're not going to micromanage this process. We love Naomi, we would love to see how she is in the hands of two women. You all take it and do your thing.'"

DuVernay and showrunner Jill Blankenship (Arrow) are grateful for the freedom Bendis and Walker gave them with this beloved new character. "Both of them have been amazingly supportive of us going off and independently taking Naomi where she'll go in the series, which will be a different path than where she'll go in the next season of the comics," DuVernay said. "I think Naomi is a muscular enough character, and she deserves and can hold multiple iterations of artists interpreting her, just like Spider-Man, just like Batman. Naomi should be able to have those multiple interpretations as well."

Naomi premieres Tuesday, Jan. 11, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the CW.

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