The Flash has wrapped up its ninth and final season on The CW and the Arrow-verse shows are pretty much done at this point. Superman & Lois will be returning next year for a fourth season (possibly its last), but it has established that it takes place in a different universe and is tangential at best to the Arrow-verse. So with no existing shows in the core canon at this time and nothing in the works, you have to wonder if this once proud franchise that had multiple entries airing together for many seasons is now done.
Why Has the Arrow-verse Ended?
At its height, this franchise had six shows airing together in a single season (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman). This past season, it was down to only one (Stargirl and Superman & Lois are connected but not direct Arrow-verse shows). And next season there will be no official shows in the franchise airing new episodes for the first time in over a decade. So how did the Arrow-verse go from six entries in the 2020-21 season to none in the upcoming 2022-23 season?
The primary driving factor for the franchise disappearing from the screens is the change of ownership at The CW. Nexstar Media Group is now the controlling partner at the network, and even though prior owners CBS and Warner Bros. are still involved, they have a reduced say in programming decisions. The Arrow-verse shows are expensive to produce, and they did not make money for the network even though they did prove profitable for Warner Bros. through subsequent streaming deals. Nexstar has decided to move The CW to a lower-cost model that focuses on acquisitions, and the Arrow-verse shows are too pricy to fit into that arrangement. (The Superman & Lois renewal barely happened and involved some serious cutbacks for the show).
If there had been no ownership change at The CW, then certainly more shows in the franchise would be airing in the current season and carrying into next year based on the tendency of prior network execs to renew shows more often than they cancelled them. Fan-favorite Legends of Tomorrow would have surely received at least an eighth and final season and both Batwoman and last year’s freshman entry Naomi would still be going and possibly headed into new seasons next year. But all three of those were cut short last year and no new shows are in the works.
Could the Arrow-verse Continue on a New Venue?
The franchise could potentially shift to a different venue with a return of some of the cancelled shows and/or some new entries, but there are complications. The CW used to have a lucrative deal with Netflix to stream encore runs of the Arrow-verse shows (current seasons would be available for streaming a couple of weeks after they ended their broadcast run) and that is where Warner Bros. turned a profit on the shows. But then The WB decided to make its own foray into streaming with HBO Max (now just Max) and the newer shows like Batwoman and Superman & Lois started heading to that platform for their encore runs.
I don’t know the specifics of the Netflix deal for the Arrow-verse shows, and I don’t know how long they have the streaming rights, but the fact that the franchise is split across two streamers makes it difficult to keep it going on a different venue. Netflix is doing well with the shows it currently has and a new deal would probably have to be worked out if the characters moved to a different platform like Max. But there doesn’t seem to be much interest over at the WB’s streaming service to keep the shows going because Batwoman could have shifted to that venue seeing as Netflix had no hold on that property. Legends of Tomorrow, on the other hand, is locked up at Netflix for now, so it is unlikely we will see the hoped-for eighth season anytime soon. Once all the rights revert to Warner Bros., we could see something happen. But again, is Max even interested?
Netflix currently holds the streaming rights to most of the Arrow-verse shows, and fans did lobby (unsuccessfully) for that streamer to pick up an eighth season of Legends of Tomorrow. But the chances of the franchise continuing there are slim. Warner Bros. Discovery will likely want to have more control over it to assure that it gets most of the revenue. There was a time when one of the linear networks–maybe TNT which is under the Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella–might have been considered as a possible destination, but they are shying away from scripted programming, especially the basic cable channels. So again, Max looks like the best destination, but that streamer is showing no interest at this point.
What’s Next for the Arrow-verse?
The fact is that the franchise will likely be taking a break for at least a few years, if not more. James Gunn and Peter Safran have their own plans for DC comics adaptations and they are trying to build a new and more successful DCEU. It is likely that most of the energy for DC characters will go in that direction for the near future. But the Arrow-verse is an expansive franchise with a large following, and the entertainment industry loves name recognition, so I expect it to return in some form down the road.
The CW had been working on the Justice U series which would have seen David Ramsey’s John Diggle recruit young meta-humans and train them to become heroes. The network passed on that and there is no indication that Max is considering picking up the show, but it could still happen at some point. It is unclear if the John Diggle character would cause any rights conflicts since Netflix currently has a lock on Arrow, but a new character could be substituted to avoid that. This show could keep the Arrow-verse going with an all-new cast and eventually fold in known characters as the rights shift back to Warner Bros. (Batwoman and Naomi would be available for crossovers right away since Netflix has no claim on those shows.) So maybe this one will get off the ground at some point.
A Justice League show was teased during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, though I am guessing that was planned as the focus for future crossovers in the franchise. It would certainly be interesting to see Max do a six-to-ten episode JL event-series on a yearly basis bringing together various Arrow-verse heroes, but the Netflix deal likely precludes that at this point. After the rights revert, though, this may be a future direction for the franchise.
After Legends of Tomorrow was cancelled, fans lobbied hard for that one to continue to an eighth season, but nothing has come of that yet. It has a similar appeal to a Justice League series in that it is a team-up show and can feature a rotating cast of heroes. It could also be used to wrap up unresolved storylines from any of a number of Arrow-verse shows (starting with the cliffhanger LoT was left on). But again, the fact that Netflix has the streaming rights for now makes it difficult to proceed with an eighth season and more.
It is also possible that the franchise could continue with a new character or characters not previously used by the existing shows. Green Lantern was teased at one point, and there are any of a number of other DC heroes they could draw from (I would love to see a Ted Kord/Blue Beetle series or the Challengers of the Unknown). A show like that could keep the franchise alive now and eventually fold in existing characters once the rights situation clears up.
But there is no indication that any of those are moving forward at this point, and as I said above, I believe the franchise will be on pause for a while. Fans should continue to lobby for an eighth season of Legends of Tomorrow because that show offers so many possibilities and could keep the Arrow-verse viable for years to come. And even if that does not happen, I’m guessing that this franchise is not done yet and it will return in some form in the years to come.
Did you watch any or all of the Arrow-verse shows and would you like to see the franchise continue? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments section below.
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