How the Scandal-How to Get Away with Murder crossover came together

Deadline

How to Get Away with Murder creator Pete Nowalk says the crossover event will run two hours across both shows on the same night. “I’ll say the whole two hours takes place in the same setting, and they have that arc over those two hours,” he says. Nowalk adds that he pitched Shonda Rhimes with the idea. “At the beginning of the season, my writers and I were planning out Viola’s entire arc and something in her story organically came up that was very appropriate for Scandal,” he says. “When I went to Shonda, she heard it. I said, we don’t have to do it, Viola’s arc doesn’t need this, but it’s possible that their stories could cross really organically. 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.”