A world disappears, a forgotten Bat-cowl and more in first trailer for Crisis on Infinite Earths

We’ve gotten a few fleeting teasers and some pics, but now The CW has finally dropped the first (albeit short) trailer for the Crisis on Infinite Earths — and literal worlds are getting wiped out early.

The Crisis event crosses over The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and Black Lightning in an event set to shatter the multiverse. There’ll also be plenty of wild cameos and crossovers, from the return of Tom Welling’s Smallville-era Clark Kent to legendary Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy playing a grizzled version of Bruce Wayne (plus a whole lot more). The CW has been teasing this one since the pilot episode of The Flash, and it certainly looks big enough to live up to the hype.

As for the first trailer, it certainly doesn’t take long to set the stakes. We see worlds being erased from existence, with both Star Labs and Iris West-Allen seemingly on the chopping block. There’s a pained scream from Barry for Oliver, and it sounds like Supergirl with a plan to save the people of a world (her own?) even if the planet itself won’t actually survive. We also glimpse a dusty Bat-cowl, possibly from Conroy's Old Man Bruce Wayne? It all ends with a final, foreboding line: “The battle is lost.”

The five-episode Crisis crossover begins Sunday, December 8, on The CW.

Check out the trailer below and give us your best theories: