2020 has been a real rollercoaster ride for fans of the many current live-action DC superhero shows. On one hand, The CW is expanding its DC lineup with shows like Superman & Lois and Stargirl: Season 2, while HBO Max is building on the backbone of the DCEU with shows like
The Batman prequel Gotham PD and
the John Cena-starring Peacemaker. On the other hand, there’s been the widespread delays and premature season finales brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the surprise revelation that
Supergirl’s sixth season will be its last.
One thing is clear at this point – the state of the DC TV landscape is shifting and will continue to shift in 2021. But where is this all leading? Does Supergirl’s end mean the Arrowverse’s days are numbered? Is WarnerMedia taking a page from the Marvel Studios playbook and trying to consolidate its TV content under the HBO Max umbrella? Let’s explore what we know right now and why you shouldn’t necessarily worry about the future of the Arrowverse just yet.
Why Is Supergirl Ending?
Saying Supergirl was “canceled” is a bit of a misnomer. The series was recently greenlit for a new season alongside most of the current CW lineup, and now we’re learning that season will be the show’s last. Presumably this wasn’t a shock to the cast and crew, and the writers have been plotting out Season 6 with the goal of tying up all loose ends. Fans needn’t worry about the series ending on an unresolved cliffhanger, a la the Dean Cain/Teri Hatcher series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman from the ’90s.
Star Melissa Benoist indicated as much when she tweeted, “I’m so excited that we get to plan our conclusion to this amazing journey, and I cannot wait for you to see what we have in store. I promise we’re going to make it one helluva final season.”
At this point we can only speculate as to The CW’s reasons for ending the series. Maybe it was decided Season 6 was a natural ending point in terms of the ongoing storyline and Kara Zor-El’s character arc. Six seasons is a pretty healthy run, after all. Perhaps, like departing Batwoman star Ruby Rose, Benoist has grown tired of the heavy physical commitment involved in being an Arrowverse star and the need to spend so much of the year filming in Vancouver. Benoist’s recent pregnancy announcement could also have a lot to do with the decision to end the series now.
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Or the show’s end could come down to ratings. Mind you, Supergirl is among the more heavily watched Arrowverse shows, coming in second only to The Flash for average weekly viewers during the 2019-2020 TV season. But the series has also seen a steeper decline in viewers than its fellow Arrowverse shows from year to year. Coupled with the fact that the effects-heavy Supergirl is likely among the most expensive shows on The CW, the network may have decided to move on.
However, the most likely answer is that The CW didn’t see a need for two Arrowverse shows centered around the Superman franchise. Supergirl’s end may have been inevitable once Superman & Lois was given a full series order. And that’s assuming Superman & Lois wasn’t conceived as a Supergirl replacement from the very beginning. There are also rumblings of Warner Bros. working to make Supergirl a big part of its DC movie universe. Even though the studio seems much more tolerant lately of having multiple live-action versions of the same character coexisting, Warners may feel the TV series conflicts with its larger plans for the character.
The Future of the Arrowverse
With the news of Supergirl ending and so many recent DC TV announcements centering around HBO Max, some Arrowverse fans are concerned about the long-term fate of this shared universe. The fear being that WarnerMedia is echoing Marvel Studios’ approach to the MCU and consolidating its focus around one TV universe directly tied to its theatrical films.
We’ll get to that topic a little later in this article. But strictly in terms of the Arrowverse’s future, there’s not currently much evidence to suggest Warner Bros. Television is pivoting away from the Arrowverse or ending its long-running relationship with The CW. If anything, recent announcements argue the opposite – that The CW is committed to keeping the Arrowverse around at a scope similar to what we’ve seen in recent years. Supergirl may be ending, but it’s got a direct replacement in the form of Superman & Lois. Stargirl is leaving DC Universe and making its permanent home on The CW, and we suspect the network sees that show as a natural fit for the Supergirl audience. Even DC Universe’s Swamp Thing: Season 1 will be airing on The CW this fall, though we wouldn’t necessarily take that as a sign The CW plans to un-cancel that infamously troubled and expensive DC series.
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The network’s handling of the Batwoman situation is also an encouraging sign. If The CW had any real plans to scale back its DC lineup, then theoretically losing Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane would have been a perfect excuse to cancel Batwoman. Instead, Rose is being replaced by new lead actress Javicia Leslie, whose character Ryan Wilder is inheriting the mantle of Batwoman. Why go through that trouble if the network isn’t committed to Batwoman’s long-term future?
Right now, Green Arrow & The Canaries is the biggest question mark regarding the future of the Arrowverse. Arrow’s penultimate episode served as a backdoor pilot for this potential spinoff, but The CW has yet to announce whether it’s moving forward with that project. The network’s uncharacteristically long silence on that front is a little odd, but there are any number of reasons why The CW might opt to shelve Green Arrow & The Canaries for the time being. For one thing, the prospect of creating a martial arts-heavy superhero series in the midst of a pandemic might be unappealing for everyone involved. The lack of momentum on that front doesn’t necessarily reflect a waning interest in the Arrowverse as a whole.
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Rebuilding the Arrowverse After Crisis
Ultimately, the Arrowverse doesn’t appear to be shrinking so much as evolving. Similar to how Avengers: Endgame marked the end of one era for the MCU and the start of another, the recent Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover was a watershed moment for the Arrowverse. It was the big payoff for a storyline that began way back at the beginning of The Flash in 2014. And just as Marvel is pivoting to new characters and new franchises in Phase 4 of the MCU, the Arrowverse is slowly beginning to rebuild and establish a new direction in the aftermath of Crisis.
The pre-Crisis Arrowverse was built around four superhero pillars – Green Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and those lovable goofballs who call themselves the Legends of Tomorrow. The post-Crisis Arrowverse may be shifting focus to a different lineup of heroes – including both veterans like Black Lightning and Superman and newcomers like the Mia Queen Green Arrow and the Ryan Wilder Batwoman. The Legends could eventually be phased out in favor of a different team (as it is, only a handful of the original Season 1 cast are still series regulars). Heck, Crisis ended with the debut of the Arrowverse’s Justice League. Maybe The CW is planning to eventually replace both Supergirl and The Flash with an ensemble series starring both Benoist and Grant Gustin.
Warners actually has a vested interest in swapping out the current Arrowverse lineup for newer shows. Not only do new shows mean fresh starting points for Arrowverse newcomers, these shows become huge assets in the streaming wars. Currently, Netflix holds the exclusive streaming rights to most of the existing Arrowverse lineup. Batwoman is the first of these shows to head to HBO Max instead. Why continue to produce DC shows that benefit a direct streaming competitor when Warners can pivot to other characters and wind up with more content for the HBO Max library? They don’t need to phase out the Arrowverse; they just have to transform it.
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Is DC Repeating the Marvel/Netflix Controversy?
Many Marvel fans are still fuming over the abrupt, untimely end of Netflix’s various Marvel shows. Following the surprise cancellations of both Iron Fist and Luke Cage in 2018, it quickly became apparent Netflix and Marvel were ending their working relationship. The Disney+ streaming service is seen as a major culprit behind that split, along with Netflix’s reluctance to keep spending money on properties it doesn’t own.
With Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige taking a more direct hand in the TV side of the MCU, the Netflix shows and their murky continuity have been axed in favor of big-budget Disney+ exclusives more directly tied to the MCU movies. At this point, it’s unclear when we’ll see characters like Daredevil and Luke Cage in the MCU, and whether those characters will be rebooted/recast when they do return.
The concern many fans seem to be voicing lately is that DC could be heading in a similar direction. Between Gotham PD, Peacemaker, Justice League Dark, Greg Berlanti’s Green Lantern series and all the various ex-DC Universe shows like Doom Patrol and Harley Quinn, WarnerMedia is clearly betting big on DC content being a huge selling point of HBO Max. Gotham PD and Peacemaker specifically represent what seems to be a growing trend of using these lavish, star-studded prestige series to expand on an existing cinematic universe and create more movie/TV synergy. That trend isn’t even limited to DC, as Dune is also getting an HBO Max-exclusive prequel series. Does the Arrowverse still have a place in this new, streamlined DC machine, or is it doomed to go the way of Netflix’s Marvel Universe?
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Again, we don’t see a lot of evidence to suggest the Arrowverse is on the way out. Perhaps if the Supergirl news is followed by similar announcements for The Flash, Legends and Batwoman, like with Netflix’s Marvel cancellations, the situation will change, but for now that appears unlikely.
For all the money it’s throwing into the streaming wars, WarnerMedia is a fairly conservative company at heart. There’s always been a sense Warners doesn’t want to keep all its eggs in one basket where DC TV shows are concerned. Even with so much DC content being consolidated at either HBO Max or The CW, there’s still the occasional outlier like Epix’s Pennyworth. Warners also allowed The Sandman to find a home at Netflix rather than produce and stream the series themselves, likely because of the show’s reportedly massive budget. With their longer seasons and relatively smaller budgets, the Arrowverse shows are probably seen as a safer, more mainstream-friendly alternative to the HBO Max exclusives. Plus, Greg Berlanti continues to play a heavy role in many of these DC TV projects, and we doubt the company would want to upset one of their most valuable producers by abruptly tanking the shared universe he helped build.
There’s no reason the Arrowverse can’t continue to coexist with HBO Max’s DC lineup. If anything, WarnerMedia seems finally eager to lean into the idea of a live-action DC multiverse where several incarnations of iconic heroes are allowed to flourish and occasionally interact. If fans can see Ben Affleck, Michael Keaton and Robert Pattinson all play Batman on the big-screen within a one-year period, then why can’t the Arrowverse continue alongside a lineup of DCEU-connected streaming shows? With Marvel leaning more and more into one unified, interconnected cinematic universe, DC’s best bet may be to do the exact opposite. As Crisis on Infinite Earths showed us, every one of these shows is part of something bigger.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
