The flagship series of The CW’s DC superhero franchise, Arrow, ended this past season (but I am still calling it the Arrow-verse because the network’s CW-verse rebranding just sounds silly), and two more shows are currently set to end this season. Supergirl is heading into its sixth year while Black Lightning returns for a fourth year and both will be wrapping up by the end of the season. That will leave The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and new entry Superman & Lois as the remaining Arrow-verse shows, assuming none of those four are given their walking papers between now and season end.
But The CW has some new shows in the works that could bring some younger blood to the franchise and keep it going for several more years. Plans for a Wondergirl series have been announced and a Painkiller spin-off from Black Lightning could lead out of that show. Plus, the network is working on an adaptation of DC’s Naomi which could be set in the Arrow-verse, and it appears that Stargirl (which is returning for a second season) will be brought into the fold as well. So is The CW setting up a younger group of heroes to replace the venerable crime-fighters who have been carrying their own shows for several years?
The fact that the network has announced final seasons for Supergirl and Black Lightning definitely suggests that changes are coming, and more shows could follow those two as early as the end of this season. The Flash will almost certainly continue for another year or more because it is the most popular of the Arrow-verse entries and has been the highest-rated show on The CW for the past few years. It’s possible that one could wrap up with its eighth season as Arrow did, or it could continue for another year or more. Superman & Lois is hard to call at this point because it will focus more on the relationship of its leads and follow less of the superhero formula. As for Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman, their future beyond this season is not as clear.
I have said for a while that this could be the final season for Legends (I said the same about Supergirl and was right about that). It is one of the network’s lower-rated series and also one of its most expensive. But as a team-up series, The CW may have an incentive to keep it around because characters from other shows that have ended could jump onboard. If a final season announcement is not made before it kicks off in Spring, then I would expect it to stick around for at least another year.
As for Batwoman, that show was a highly anticipated arrival last year but did not prove to be the ratings hit I’m sure the network was hoping for. In addition, it lost its lead actress after its first season and will be rebooting itself to an extent in its second year. It’s not impossible that the network could outright cancel the show if the ratings do not improve, though it is rare for The CW to do that.
Superman & Lois is hard to call at this point because it is going in a different direction from the other Arrow-verse shows. It will focus more on the relationship between Clark and Lois and their life as parents. So it will almost certainly have less in the way of superhero stories that fans of the franchise prefer. Will that work for this show, or will Superman be defeated by Nielsen kryptonite by season end? The jury is out on this one for now.
If Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman were to end this season, that would leave The Flash and Superman & Lois as the only veteran Arrow-verse shows on the network’s schedule. The CW has been developing other properties and may want its superhero shows to take up less of its Prime Time real estate, but they will not just kick this long-running franchise to the curb going into the 2021-22 season. I’m thinking at least two of the current Arrow-verse shows will carry over with one or two new ones joining the team. In the slim chance that LoT, Superman & Lois, and Batwoman all get the boot, two to three of the new shows could join the schedule.
Among the new shows in the works, it’s hard to say which of them has the best chance to make it to the schedule. All of them focus on younger heroes and they can bring some fresh faces to the franchise. Painkiller will get a backdoor pilot during Black Lightning‘s fourth season, and it is not impossible they could try to introduce Wondergirl in one of the current shows this year. The CW has decided not to go forward with the Green Arrow and the Canaries spin-off, but those characters could still make an appearance in other Arrow-verse shows. As for Naomi, that show has up-and-coming Ava DuVernay attached as showrunner which could help fast-track it to series.
And then there is the possibility of a Justice League show that was teased at the end of the Crisis on Infinite Earths event series. If they go that route, I’m going to guess it will not be a full-season, 22-episode affair. It would be thirteen episodes at most and maybe just an event series that runs about six episodes a year. Because of the cast and the epic stories they would have to tell, it would be far too expensive for that to run for a full broadcast network season. But if they approach it as a big event each season, any of a number of characters from the other shows can be included, and it will also be a way to keep fan-favorite faces around for several more years.
The Arrow-verse has certainly not run its course yet, but the ratings continue to drop for the shows, and The CW’s development queue certainly indicates a desire to add non-superhero properties to the schedule. The proposed new shows would certainly inject some new blood into the franchise and could be prepped to pick up the torch when The Flash eventually ends its run. And a Justice League show could be a way to keep the larger band of heroes together for several more years to come and perhaps eventually launch yet another round of shows.
Are you still watching the Arrow-verse shows? Which ones do you want to see continue beyond the current season? Chime in with your thoughts below.
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I don’t think the Arrowverse will end. But it will go through multiple changes over the years to keep itself fresh. As for it’s non Arrowverse shows like “Legacies”, “Riverdale,” the new “Charmed”, “Nancy Drew” the new “Roswell” & their imports like “The Outpost”, “Coroner” & “Burden of Proof” all seem to be safe for the moment. We will have to wait & see.
I lost almost complete interest in these shows somewhere between maybe 2 or 3 seasons ago. (maybe even longer) Right around the time they started to turn every show into a team show. Arrow was best when it was just Oliver and Diggle with the occasional assistance of someone else. Once that changed it all became more and more ridiculous. In general the production quality and stories just declined to the point of reminding me of the worst of the Canadian produced syndicated shows of the late 90’s.
I watch the big team-up events and a few episodes here and there, but very little else. The copy-and-paste dialogue and the unnecessary soap opera subplots just drag the shows down these days.