These days, superhero adaptations are shrouded in mystery -- so much so that even actors don't know which role they're auditioning for until they get the part. This was the case for LaMonica Garrett, who made his grand Arrowverse debut as the Monitor in last fall's "Elseworlds" crossover. In fact, he believed he was auditioning for Val-Zod right up until he landed the role.
"Yeah, "I went through the whole audition process thinking I was Val-Zod, like black Superman," he told CBR. The way the character breakdown was, he was Kryptonian. He was of another world. He was all-powerful. I'm like, 'Who else is there?' Like, there's no one else," he told CBR.
"It was maybe three auditions into it and after, I was in the gym, I was working out. Agent hit me up: 'Yeah, you got the part.' Awesome! 'They want you to fly to Vancouver tomorrow to start working, get fitted for the outfit.' I'm like, 'Alright, cool. Wait, wait, wait, wait! Who am I playing?' They were so vague about it," he recalled. "And then they told me the Monitor. They had to call and find out, and then they called me back and told me it was the Monitor. I was like, 'Oh, Monitor. No, that's not Val-Zod. Okay, that's Crisis. That's a big deal.'"
As a longtime comic book fan, Garrett immediately realized the magnitude of the role. His initial reaction to learning he would play the Monitor was "Don't screw it up. Don't screw it up. They've been building this train since The Flash [Season] 1. They've been, you know, setting this in motion. They've been laying pieces down over the years. Adding the Monitor is not the final piece, but one of the last big pieces to that puzzle."
"So in my head, I was just like, 'Research, research, ask a ton of questions, research, read more. Go back and reread Crisis, research, just putting myself in that world.' And not just research with Crisis, but the Guardians, like Oa, Green Lantern," he continued. "Anti-Monitor, that was their main nemesis, going throughout the comic book. So it was like, I just studied everything. But it was fun research because that's what you do anyway: you read comic books."
Following his debut in "Elseworlds," Garrett reprised the role in the season finales of each Arrowverse series: Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and DC's Legends of Tomorrow. He teased that the Monitor will continue to "pop up" as the Arrowverse builds to "Crisis on Infinite Earths," this year's reality-shaking crossover. Seeing as the Monitor has enlisted Oliver Queen for his mission to warn the multiverse of the Crisis to come, his reappearance is simply inevitable.
Scheduled to air this fall on The CW, "Crisis on Infinite Earths" will envelope Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman.