Now that Gotham will soon commence its fifth and final season, the reality of it never being able to crossover with the Arrowverse is bound to set in. While this has been something fans clamored for over the past handful of years, it’s largely been made impossible due to the Batman prequel series airing on Fox, with Arrow and its various sister series existing over on The CW.
I know, you’re going to bring up how The Flash and Supergirl were able to crossover when the latter was still on CBS. But what made that situation different is how CBS actually has stake in The CW. After all, The CW does stand for “CBS/Warner Bros.” Fox, meanwhile, is a completely separate entity.
Still, Arrowverse producers gave some measure of cross-pollination a shot when crafting the recent “Elseworlds” event. Believe it or not, they asked Gotham‘s creative collective if they could borrow their version of the Bat-signal to complement the introduction of Ruby Rose’s Batwoman, only to be answered with a resounding “no.”
Regardless, a version of the Bat-signal was still utilized, so everything worked out. But as a fan of all series being discussed here today, I’m not sure how one could think the iteration thus far seen on Gotham would be even recognizable. To this point, it’s been seen only as a proto-Bat-signal of sorts, for it’s just a floodlight devoid of the Batman logo. Perhaps the finished product shows up in the series finale, but we can’t be too sure of that until the concluding episode airs this spring.
Gotham returns for its fifth season tonight on Fox. The CW, meanwhile, will broadcast a special encore presentation of “Elseworlds” on Monday, January 7th and Tuesday, January 8th.
