Renewal Announcements: The CW was busy at the TCA’s this weekend and delivered one of its usual large renewal announcements, though it fell short of including all the network’s Fall shows. Among the genre entries coming back for the 2017-18 season are all the ones you would expect: The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supernatural. Those five represent the network’s top-rated shows this season, and renewals have been expected for all of these for some time. Plus, this will get Supergirl into the third season syndication stretch, meaning that a fourth year nod will pretty much be a rubberstamp for that one next year. Not included in the announcements was freshman series Frequency, which is currently one of the network’s lowest rated shows, but it has not been officially cancelled either. That series only had a thirteen episode order for its first season, and the network’s boss Mark Pedowitz indicated that was always the plan for the show because of The CW’s crowded schedule. It will hit Netflix next month once it wraps up its broadcast run (season finale is on January 25th), and if it can find an audience on the streaming service it still has a slight chance of returning for a second season. Not included in the renewal announcements were any of The CW’s mid-season shows such as The 100, iZombie, and The Originals, but that is no surprise. Their fate will hinge upon how they perform once they return for their new seasons (you can see the debut dates for those shows at this link). Also, it appears The CW has no plans of adding a Superman TV series to the Arrow-verse at the moment as Pedowitz indicated that character is too closely tied with the upcoming DC movies. He did mention, though, that he would like to see Tyler Hoechlin reprise his role as the Man of Steel in Supergirl in the future, though there are no immediate plans for that.
Animated Revival: Also among this weekend’s announcements was word that Matt Ryan will be returning as Constantine, though in animated form. Five ten-minute episodes have been ordered of the revival series and it will stream on CW Seed which is currently the home of first season of the live-action Constantine series as well as the animated Vixen spin-off from Arrow. The CW’s boss also indicated that he would like to see John Constantine return to the live-action Arrow-verse (he guested in a Season 4 Arrow episode), though nothing is in the works at the moment. Perhaps if the animated series proves popular, maybe the network will then do what everybody wants and bring back the live-action series.
There are still quite a number of sci fi and fantasy shows from Fall and before awaiting to hear word on their fates, so be sure to keep an eye on this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for any additional renewal / cancellation announcements as we head into the new year.
