In many ways, The CW’s Arrowverse shows are in ruder health than ever. All four series – Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash and Supergirl – are comfortably into their sixth, fourth and third seasons, respectively, and they just enjoyed their biggest crossover yet in the form of the “Crisis on Earth-X” miniseries.
It’s surprising, then, that the network seems to be hesitant about guaranteeing the future of half of the shows. While The Flash and Supergirl have been officially renewed for new seasons, beginning fall 2018, Arrow and Legends are still awaiting confirmation on if they’ve got another year ahead of them.
While talking to Discussing Film at ACE Comic Con in Rhode Island, Arrowverse exec producer Marc Guggenheim revealed the news when chatting about the difficulties of planning ahead when your TV show could be axed at any minute.
“I think it’s very hard, in television, to have a master plan in terms of how many years out. Television works on a different kind of time horizon than features does. That said, we have a clear vision as to what we want to do on both of the shows. That’s nice. We don’t have official pick ups yet on either show. We’re very confident we’ll get additional seasons on both shows.”
Before fans get worried though, as Guggenheim explains, it’s still very likely that Arrow and Legends will be renewed at some point. However, it might be telling that The Flash and Supergirl were dished out new seasons immediately whereas the other two have to wait. Arrow arguably hasn’t been the must-see TV it used to be for a few seasons now, and Legends doesn’t have the hook the others do for general audiences as it’s a team-up show.
Still, The CW would be seriously misguided to cut their successful superhero universe in half. In fact, it’s more likely that the Arrowverse will continue to grow. Black Lightning arrives on the network in January, for instance, and even though it isn’t officially part of the same continuity, it’s still connected to the others in spirit.
Arrow‘s sixth season picks up on January 8th, while Legends of Tomorrow returns on February 10th.
