(Major spoilers for the Arrowverse “Elseworlds” crossover and Arrow season 7 ahead)
The annual DCTV Arrowverse crossover has now come and gone. While “Elseworlds” was a monumental success, most people are talking about the teaser that was featured at the end of the event. It has now been confirmed that The CW will be adapting their own version of the iconic “Crisis on Infinite Earths” story arc. The “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover will premiere in Fall 2019.
Even though this will be another memorable achievement for the Arrowverse, I believe “Crisis on Infinite Earths” pretty much closes the casket on the show that started it all, Arrow. Here’s why:
Too Many CW Shows
This one will be short and to the point. Here’s the lineup of all of the current and future DC related projects in development at The CW right now
- Arrow
- The Flash
- Supergirl
- DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (due to bad ratings, Legends will probably be canceled after its current season)
- Black Lightning
- Batwoman
That’s a ton of DC content on The CW. More than the network probably wants to be honest. I’m not even mentioning the rumors around the development of a CW Superman series starring Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch. Even if Legends hits the chopping block, I could easily see Arrow as the next victim in line.
Season 7 May End Up Being Too Good for the Writing Team to Top
Let’s get this enormous elephant out of the room. Arrow has been on the air for a while. It’s been through seven seasons, acted as the center of many big-time crossovers, and was the catalyst that started this whole thing off.
Stephen Amell, who plays Oliver Queen AKA The Green Arrow, has stated that he asked new Arrow showrunner Beth Schwartz to treat Season 7 as if it was its last. To be fair, Amell was obviously telling Schwartz to pull out all of the stops in bringing the show back to its former glory. His statements had nothing to do with a possible cancelation. In fact, ratings have improved from the show’s sixth season.
Schwartz and her team gave us Season 7, which has delivered in almost every way so far. To many (including myself), this is the best the series been since its height in popularity during Season 2. Oliver being outed as the Green Arrow is unique and has opened up many lanes for the Emerald Archer going forward this season. The flashforwards featuring an adult William and future versions of Team Arrow have given us a compelling glimpse at the bleak future of Star City. As good as these aspects of the show have been, they may also hurt the series in the long run.
What can the writers do with these flashforwards? As Schwartz has said, the plan is to continue visiting this arc until the series concludes. But, this is a dark future that pretty much shuts the door on any happy endings for Team Arrow. Roy exiled himself to Lian Yu. Dinah is a vigilante again (most likely without her powers). William was essentially abandoned. As good as the present day has been, why should I care about it when I know that this is how it ends?
Getting to the present day stuff, Oliver Queen is once again the Green Arrow. This is public knowledge now. In Season 7, it makes sense for Oliver to team up with SCPD as the Green Arrow but this can’t be a long-term solution. Despite my opinion that Oliver could lighten up a little bit and be less brooding, there’s no way we will ever see this version of the character go full comic-Ollie by cracking jokes in fight scenes. He’s never going to be the jokester who fights for Social Justice. Nor should he be. It just wouldn’t fit this iteration of the character.
Now, having an excellent season that makes the next season harder to speculate on is a great problem to have. But this does bring up a solid question. What else is there for Arrow to accomplish? We’ve already seen Deathstroke vs. the Green Arrow. We’ve seen Oliver face a dark, Joker-like antagonist with Prometheus. He’s even gone head-to-head with Ra’s Al Ghul.
Where do we go from here? Well, I have an answer for you. Send this show, and its main character, off the right way. This starts with “Crisis on Infinite Earths”.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” is the Best Way to End Arrow
So we covered that Arrow has been through a gauntlet of ups and downs. “Crisis on Infinite Earths” can be the beginning of the end of that long journey. This is the prime opportunity for the Arrowverse to begin anew and send off its flagship series with a bang.
In “Elseworlds”, Oliver came to an agreement with The Monitor to spare the lives of Flash and Supergirl. We never truly figured out what this compromise was except that it had to do with “balancing out the universe”. Wait…did they? Is this Infinity War all over again?
If I had to guess, there are two logical options to what Oliver gave up to protect his friends. He either told The Monitor to move up the Crisis and/or sacrificed himself to save his friends. For the sake of this long-winded article, let’s just say the latter is involved somehow.
I’m no TV expert. I don’t know how difficult it would be for this to happen. But here’s my pitch.
Have Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, and maybe even Black Lightning return to TV in the Fall (unfortunately, I just don’t see Legends of Tomorrow making it another season). Instead of setting up a big bad, the entire premise of all of these shows is to set up “Crisis on Infinite Earths”.
We have our crossover and, as I mentioned earlier, Ollie sacrifices himself to save the day. Then we see Earths collide, the Anti-Monitor defeated, a funeral for the Green Arrow, I trust that you know the drill. I can already hear some asking “But how do you end Arrow without Oliver Queen?”. It’s going to be very difficult but my suggestion is to cut out the present day story entirely. For the final episodes of Season 8, focus solely on William and the future. We can end Arrow on a bright note, with Star City being saved and the mantle of the Green Arrow being taken up once more.
Look, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” is over a year away. A lot can happen in that time. Legends may stay on the network. The Chiefs could win a Superbowl. The DCEU could produce an amazing movie. Well, I’m not sure that last one will happen but it’s possible. I’m just saying that Crisis could give The CW a perfect chance to reset the board in a sense and give Arrow a proper send-off at the same time.
Do you believe Arrow is nearing its end? What do you think will happen in “Crisis on Infinite Earths”? Let us know in the comments below!