The CW officially announced yesterday that its DC superhero series Supergirl will be ending with its upcoming sixth season, but you heard it here first. I have been predicting for some time that Season 6 could be the last for this show (as recently as May), and more Arrow-verse entries could follow. Series star Melissa Benoist had the following to say about the show coming to an end:
To say it has been an honor portraying this iconic character would be a massive understatement. Seeing the incredible impact the show has had on young girls around the world has always left me humbled and speechless. She’s had that impact on me, too. She’s taught me strength I didn’t know I had, to find hope in the darkest of places, and that we are stronger when we’re united. What she stands for pushes all of us to be better. She has changed my life for the better, and I’m forever grateful.
The Arrow-verse is starting to get long in the tooth, and the ratings have been sliding for the shows the last few years. Supergirl has been one of the lower-rated entries and its sixth season seemed like a good point to wrap it up. The show will have 126 episodes for its full run (20 are planned for the upcoming season) which is more than enough for an extended run in syndication. This will also give it the chance to wrap up its storylines.
The other Arrow-verse series that I have pegged as potentially headed for an end run is Legends of Tomorrow which will also be in its sixth season this coming year. That is also one of the lower-rated entries in the franchise and likely one of the most expensive to produce. It has had shorter seasons than most of the other Arrow-verse shows, but a sixth year will get it to right about the one hundred episode mark which is plenty for a syndication run. However, the network may want to keep that one going because of its team-up aspect, allowing characters from the franchise to pass in an out.
But then the Justice League was teased at the end of the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, so it is possible that the network could be shifting its focus to a series based on that team. If the CW goes that direction, that would almost certainly spell the end for Legends of Tomorrow, and we could see Supergirl return in a recurring role as well as other characters from her show (specifically Martian Manhunter who is a long-time League member in the comics). The CW rarely ends its shows without advance notice, especially those that have been airing for two seasons or more. So if there is no announcement on LoT by the time it kicks off its sixth season, it may still have at least one more left. But it does not return until Spring due to the production delays (Supergirl returns in January), so the network has plenty of time to mull its fate.
In any case, I expect major changes to the Arrow-verse over the next couple of years. I will go into that in more detail in an upcoming post, but that franchise’s dominance of The CW’s schedule could likely be coming to an end.
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Legends of Tomorrow should definitely end with its upcoming sixth season. The show has gotten really stale and boring.