ABC has just fulfilled the hopes of all die-hard Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder fans: a crossover is officially in the works. Kerry Washington, who stars in Scandal, teased the event by posting a photo of her in character as Olivia Pope on the Murder set. Viola Davis in turn posted her own photo on the Scandal set while in character as Annalise Keating from Murder.
Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes and Murder creator Peter Nowalk have both confirmed that they are working on the crossover project. In an interview with Deadline, Nowalk shared that the idea came up when he and the Murder writers were planning out Viola’s story arc for the season. “Something in her story organically came up that was very appropriate for Scandal,” he said. “When I went to Shonda, she heard it. She actually pulled up a clip of something from Scandal and their side of the story coalesced perfectly. So it was one of those serendipitous things where we both realized it was good for both characters, and it almost felt like we had been planning it since last season.”
“I will say, the Scandal read-through, I, as an audience member, just found it so refreshing and fun,” Nowalk said. “It really felt like Annalise fit in that episode really well. So now the pressure for us for Murder is just to match that level of excitement that they created.”
Nowalk also confirmed that the crossover will air as a two-hour block on the same night, starting with Scandal and finishing with Murder. Nowalk also revealed that the two hours take place in the same setting, even though one show is set in Philadelphia and the other in D.C. He insisted it would be “consistent.” The two episodes are “very pivotal to each other’s storylines,” and there might be some fallout from the crossover.
Nowalk was also able to confirm what most fans are dying to know: Davis and Washington will, indeed, share scenes. A snippet from a script that Shonda Rhimes shared also confirms this detail.
Other characters will also crossover, but Nowalk said “we are not ready to reveal which ones yet.”
He was likely unable to reveal much more about how the crossover will play out. “This is as secure as we get with this episode,” he said. “Scripts are really under lock, and that really is just about maintaining the fun for the audience, because the thrill of these shows is the surprise a bunch of the time, and I think that’s the really good surprise.”
