Team GATV Roundtable: Looking Back At The First Half Of Arrow Season 4

Should Arrow and Flash exist in the same universe as Supergirl?

CRAIG: It would be fun, but I don’t know how it could be explained, since in 4 seasons of Arrow and 2 of The Flash, no one has really mentioned Superman. I would love to see that dynamic, though, and I think Supergirl being part of a larger universe could help that show as well as the ones on The CW for some more synergy.

DEREK: Nah. Supergirl has made its world its own thing, and that’s awesome. The existence of aliens and the debut of Superman would have been a huge event in the DCwU. Retroactively making Constantine canon worked because it’s a mythology that didn’t have much impact on the current shows until he came in. Supergirl‘s narrative, conversely, is based on the idea that Superman has existed for a while and both he and Supergirl are widely-known public figures. To have them never mentioned or referenced or influencing that part of the world until a crossover magically happens would ring way too false. Now, if they ever decided to do a specifically cross-dimensional crossover, I’d be okay with that.

MATT: No. Before Supergirl premiered, I would’ve been on-board with it. It’s clear, though, that the show is set in a very different world than the DCwU. There would have to be extraordinary contortions to get everything to line up. I’ve seen a fan concept floated that Supergirl could exist in a separate universe and that the dimensional breaches on The Flash could offer a way to do crossovers. I could get behind that, but I’m not necessarily aching for any kind of connection between the shows.

STEPHANIE: I wouldn’t have a problem if Supergirl existed in the same universe as Arrow, the Flash, and even Legends of Tomorrow if they kept it to occasional mentions of one another as examples of other (super)heroes, although like Derek said, it’d be weird since Superman hasn’t been mentioned in four years. Once you get into a Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday crossover event, it feels like they’re desperate for viewers. Plus, it would diminish the strength of the individual heroes. If Oliver has to team up with a metahuman and an alien in order to defeat a villain, it makes him look incompetent, which is inaccurate and shouldn’t happen. That being said, I would still love to see Diggle’s reaction to Supergirl’s powers.