Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice is just under two years away. Three new TV shows based on DC Comic properties: The Flash, Constantine, and Gotham will air beginning in the fall on the CW, NBC, and Fox respectively. The Flash has already appeared on CW’s Arrow in this previous season’s most watched episodes. And with all of these new shows and movies: rumors have run rampant with each successive character announcement that maybe, just maybe there would be some crossover between the big and small screens. Even today, CW President Mark Pedowitz fueled the fire: confirming discussions with DC about an Arrow and Flash crossover into the films before adding simply “that’s up to the studio.” Oddly enough, Chief Creative Officer at DC, Geoff Johns, quashed those rumors in a separate interview, stating definitively: “We will not be integrating the film and television universes.”
Arguably that’s a good thing for the casual viewer and fan boy alike. Batman vs. Superman already seems bloated with the additional casting of Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Aquaman with more rumors that Shazam, the Flash, and even Green Lantern might appear as well as the title characters. The Flash/Arrow universe, too, is growing with recent casting news of two more superheroes Atom and Firestorm. Creatively, that many characters sharing the same universe — not to mention the difficulty keeping all the different writers on the same page creatively — would simply be messy. Keeping the universes separate should provide for much stronger writing no matter the proxy. With Comic Con just around the corner, expect DC to officially announce their much rumored movie lineup that could (and likely will) include: Justice League, a Green Lantern and Flash “buddy” film, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Sandman, and a direct sequel to Man of Steel.
– Daniel Freudberg is a freelance writer based in Washington, DC.
