As I write this Arrow has already ended its penultimate 8th season on the CW after concluding its biggest crossover based on the DC Comics Crisis on Infinite Earths. The irony of that is not long after that the real world has faced its own crisis on earth in the form of the pandemic named Coronavirus which has affected the population worldwide and still continues to today.
To fully understand the impact of Arrow on the genre we have to go back to the beginning, It was 2011 and Smallville the Superman prequel series had just ended its 10th and final season and last episode had aired and sole comic book-inspired show on TV. A young writer and producer named Greg Berlanti and his fellow team of writers were developing a Green Arrow DC TV show based on the emerald archer’s origins about how Oliver Queen became the Green Arrow in a similar mode of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy.
Arrow premiered on October 10th 2012, the first few seasons received critical acclaim from fans and critics with its gritty and impressive realism and dark subject matter. It starred the then-unknown Canadian actor Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen, David Ramsey as John Diggle, Emily Bett-Rickards as Felicity Smoak, Katie Cassidy (Laurel Lance), Willa Holland (Thea Queen), Susannah Thompson (Moira Queen), Manu Bennett-Slade Wilson), Celina Jade (Shado) and Paul Blackthorne as Detective Lance.
Seasons 1,2 and 5 are considered the best seasons of the show by fans I have met at events and by myself with great character growth and chemistry. A year later in 2013, Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill would premiere on the big screen kicking off the DC movie universe.
Throughout the seasons iconic superhero characters and villains would be introduced such as The Suicide Squad, Barry Allen/The Flash in 2014 who proved so popular after being a guest star he was given his own show which Berlanti created and produced, then 2015 Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) was created and then Legends of Tomorrow starring Arrow characters Sara Lance/White Canary (Caity Lotz) and Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh). This would create the DC TV Universe named ‘The Arrowverse’. In 2018 Black Lightning starring Cress Williams would premiere and then a year later Batwoman starring Ruby Rose would premiere
Also other DC TV shows where launched Swamp Thing, Titans, Doom Patrol and Stargirl. With all the other movies that had been released during this period such as Batman VS Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Suicide Squad, Justice League, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey and Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut and Wonder Woman 84 waiting to be released.
With Crisis on Infinite Earths the biggest tv crossover ever done it brought together different DC properties, TV shows, movies from the past to the present such as John Wesley-Shipps’s 90’s Flash, Michael Keaton’s Batman, Smallville, Titans but it was the one scene which took place rightly on Arrows episodes of the crossover in star labs where The Arrowverse Flash (Grant Gustin) would come face to face with another scarlet speedster in the speed force the DCEU’S The Flash (Ezra Miller) thereby making the DC’s on screen multiverse official, honouring past characters, and current ones and changing and evolving the genre again as DC Fandome Part 2 is being launched this weekend the worldwide virtual event from DC/WB.
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