‘Superman & Lois’ Finale Signals Arrowverse Is on Its Last Leg

Following The CW canceling a large number of its shows after Warner Bros.’ merger with Discovery, the Arrowverse DC TV shows were already on very thin ice, but the latest Superman & Lois finale episode further destabilized it.

Spoilers for Superman & Lois.

In the season finale for Superman & Lois, we got the reveal that this story takes place on a separate Earth from the one of the Arrowverse. This, of course, is a bit confusing, since the Crisis event literally existed to combine all the Earths, and this difference hasn’t been properly established until this point. Even the reintroduction of Diggle, from the tentpole series Arrow, is now confirmed by the showrunner to be an alternate universe version of Diggle.

During a discussion with TV Line, showrunner Todd Helbing spoke about the confusion and how it eventually came together: “From Day 1, there were questions of how we were connected to the Arrowverse. If you go back to the first script that got sent to Warner Brothers and DC, it had a lot of references to other heroes like The Flash. There were moments when we were shooting, and I think I’ve said this before, but there was a photo of Kara on Lois’ desk at the Daily Planet. All of that stuff got slowly pulled out, and the more we did that, the more it became a can of worms to even mention it.”

Helbing continued, “DC and I had a conversation during Season 1, and the decision [to keep Superman & Lois separate] was made then, but I couldn’t make it public until the end of this season.” That’s pretty confusing for fans who have followed the Tyler Hoechlin incarnation of Superman/Clark from Supergirl. It feels like the cancellation of the series allowed for the show to finally, officially, make their position known.

“So when I got all these questions [in previous interviews], I knew what we were doing, but I could never talk about it. It got a little frustrating on my end, but I totally understand DC’s position. So this put that to rest. I’ve said from the beginning that we want to put our own stamp on the Superman property. This wasn’t meant to alienate us from the Arrowverse, but because a lot of the other shows are sadly no longer going to be on the air, it felt like the right thing to do.”

So we are on Earth-Prime now (the Earth of the DC Comics), and The Flash is the only, as of now, Arrowverse show remaining and is likely to be the last. The Flash has managed to keep the West-Allen core couple, with Candice Patton and Grant Gustin returning for season 9, but the show lost Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanagh, who played Cisco and Wells, and on April 13 of this year, it was reported that Jesse L. Martin was also stepping down from his role as Joe West.

The Arrowverse was the tentpole of the network, and now it barely exists. This is a bittersweet reality for fans and the team behind this world. I guess you’d better keep running, Barry.

(via TVLine, featured image: The CW)