Fox’s Gotham may be its own standalone world focusing on self-contained origin stories of iconic Batman characters, and NBC’s Constantine may already be over, but that’s not slowing down the construction of a DC Comics shared TV universe. In fact, it’s already starting to explode.
On The CW, Arrow helped launch a new successful series based on The Flash, and potentially sharing the same world might be the upcoming CBS show Supergirl - which has already been picked up for a full season – and the upcoming TNT series, Titans. Andrew Kreisberg, executive producer on three of these series (and writer/showrunner on Arrow) isn’t stopping there though. He’s also helping develop an additional spinoff series for The CW’s programming, utilizing existing characters from Arrow and Flash, but details on this new series remain largely a mystery.
Kreisberg, alongside producer Greg Berlanti, are helping coordinate what we hope will become a shared DC TV universe that spans multiple networks. But, even if CBS and TNT keep their own programming as just that – their own – there’s no stopping the growth of a franchise just on The CW.
Robbie Amell as Firestorm
When Brandon Routh joined the cast of Arrow as a character who’d become the superhero known as Atom, the creators behind the show, including Marc Guggenheim, didn’t shy away from listing him as a potential character for his own spinoff. The same talk was heard from the Flash camp when they introduced Robbie Amell as Firestorm. And that’s (sort of) what’s happening.
An Arrow/Flash spinoff is in the works, described as a team-up that will embrace time-travel, a plot device about to be explored in The Flash. A few familiar faces have already been confirmed, including Routh, and the other half of Firestorm played by veteran actor Victor Garber, alongside Arrow’s Caity Lotz and Flash’s Wentworth Miller. A few new characters will join the main cast as well, but like the title of this series, they’ve not yet been named.
What we do know, from the words of Arrow star Stephen Amell this weekend at Kansas City’s Planet Comicon, is that the Arrow/Flash spinoff will air next year during the midseason, early 2016, so expect the beginnings for season 4 of Arrow and season 2 of Flash to help setup this third series.
Brandon Routh as Atom
With both current CW DC shows making an appearance at Hollywood’s PaleyFest 2015 this past week, Andrew Kreisberg answered quite a few questions about the second half of each show’s current season and the upcoming spinoff where he told Green Arrow TV on the red carpet that it won’t be long before we find out exactly how Caity Lotz’s Black Canary will be a part of this show given her … concluded storyline in Arrow.
“I think by the Spring, you’ll know. We want to keep some surprises going, but we’re really excited about that series…. just to add another leg to the tripod, and complete it. We’ll get to see some of the characters that we’ve seen and introduce a whole bunch of new characters, and show them all in a different way, and have the show really feel different. As different as Flash feels from Arrow, this new show will feel different from both of them.”
As for the title of the show, the creators and network are very unsure at this point and it seems the project came together pretty quickly and is going to be based on who they can sign, beginning with the names they locked down above.
“I don’t know. It’s still very early in the process on that. We had to make sure to get as much of the cast set as we could before we sat down to break this mega-series with all of these characters, rather than be do that and have people say they’re not interested.”
Does the idea of a team-up featuring both new and returning characters appeal to you? Should Robbie Amell’s Firestorm be a main character in this series as well? Would you rather see another popular DC Comics character lead their own third show on the CW Network? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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More: Why DC Comics’ Shared TV Universe is Still Possible
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Sources: CBM, Green Arrow TV
is it early next year or 2015?
Early 2016
Like 2015 – 2016 season Is what he refers to.
Ya, for ease, I changed it to next midseason in the title and dated it 2016 in post.
Official date hasn’t been announced.
cool thanks Rob, when I read this a got really excited but 2016 makes so much more sense.
I have been thinking for a while now and yall tell me if yall think this could be a possibility do any of yall think that this is a series taking place in an alternate universe (Flashpoint Universe or something like it). I am not sure exactly how this would work maybe it acts as a midseason bridge ala Agent Carter or something like and it runs for like 10-13 episodes or maybe even less. But this alternate universe theory of mine could really only work for like the 1st season so maybe it is like that other theory many people have of it being an anthology series and this alternate universe is the 1st season. Yeah I am not really sure if this theory of mine makes a lot of sense or not but I just thought I would lay it out there
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. That this would just be a short 8-episode mini-series like Agent Carter based in the Flashpoint Universe. Just a one-off.
And to flesh it out, here’s my prediction: It would basically retell the story of the Flashpoint Paradox but replace Cyborg with Atom, Aquaman with Captain Cold, Wonder Woman with Black Canary, papa-Batman with Merlyn-Arrow, and no-Superman with no-Firestorm.
good suggestions! I was thinking similar character parallels though Captain Cold could probably actually be the same character he was in the Falshpoint Comics. Also there are three new DC characters that are suppose to be in the show that they haven’t revealed the names of though they said we have never seen these characters in live action before so that will be cool!
This is the only thing that makes sense to me based on the information we’ve gotten so far.
“…so expect the beginnings for season 4 of Arrow and season 2 of Flash to help setup this third series.”
Flashpoint Universe? I hope this new series takes place in the Flashpoint Universe. That could explain how Sarah Lance is still alive.
Anything but Super Friends.
Ugghhhh, this is driving me nuts! Why is there only HALF of Firestorm involved? And it’s not even the one with the physical form of Firestorm!
Also, the producers/marketers of these shows seem to not give a damn about spoilers. The original Canary coming back to life seems like something you would want to surprise your audience with. And the identity of the Reverse-Flash was confirmed in an interview before it was revealed on The Flash. So weird.
Kind of have to agree
I find it strange that Robbie Amell hasn’t been signed on yet/hasn’t been made public if he has. Surely it makes sense to have him based on what they did on the Flash. Unless they have other plans for him, but with Greg signed to this why wouldn’t they. Bring us the Firestorm!
Hope the title is appealing and makes sense for this team-up series.
Well, I do think Firestorm and Atom need to be around for awhile. We really need to see Atom able to shrink, as well as his comic-book costume, these are musts! A preliminary article hinted at some of the new characters, and they did not sound as exciting as the concepts put forth so far, but I will definitely give this new show a watch, to see what they come up with. Arrow and Flash have been winners for the most part so far, some of the more fun shows on TV (along with Sleepy Hollow and Agents of Shield, at least in my book). They have had lots to offer. There are some DC heroes I want to see eventually either in movies or TV series or on Netflix: Hourman (c’mon, CW Network, you talked about this one!); Dr. Fate; Spectre; Deadman; Martian Manhunter; Hawkman; Metamorpho; Legion of Super-Heroes; Dr. Midnite; much more Hal Jordan Green Lantern (!). Lots of potential out there, so I hope some of this gets put into motion!
I hope they call it World’s Finest.
Laurel will die this season(finally)and her identical twin sister that her father has kept a secret, comes to Starling city to make sure nobody suspects the Black Canary has died(again). Even team arrow doesn’t see the difference, because there is a plant that makes them believe even Elvis is still alive(Elvis will make a cameo, end of season 4)They also have plans for a plant that will take team arrow back to the past and save the REAL canary(Sara ofcourse), but that won’t happen until season 5.
So, the spinnoff will be about the BC we all wanted from the beginning, starting with Laurels death, and ending with Sara coming back.