Superman And Lois Severs All Ties To The Arrowverse
John Diggle made a guest appearance on Superman And Lois last night. He was first introduced on the TV series Arrow, a show that spawned a whole low-budget TV universe of superheroes. That universe seems to be dying now, but when it was in its prime, it was glorious. At least bits and pieces of it are still alive, for now…The Flash is hanging in there (barely), and Superman And Lois is going strong….oh, wait.
There’s something Diggle said last night that makes no sense. It went like this: “I’ve been working for the DOD for a long time. I’ve seen things you would not believe—glimpses of other worlds, and the leagues of superheroes they have on them. And even though we only have your father on this planet, thank God that we do, because he’s the finest of any Earth.” But…but…what about Supergirl? What about Barry? WHAT ABOUT BEEBO??
TV Line got the showrunner of S&L, Todd Helbing, on the phone to explain this statement. He said “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.”
So….
“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,” Helbing confessed. What a letdown. It makes no sense, of course, that they would be forbidden to admit this until now, but DC makes a lot of baffling decisions when it comes to TV. It’s in character for ’em.
So what is Diggle doing there? That’s, uh, a different Diggle, Helbing handwaved. “David Ramsey had grown a beard and grew his hair out. He called me and said, ‘I’ve been growing my hair, I look different. Do you want me to shave and get a haircut?’ So not to add more confusion to it, but he’s a different Diggle.” Hear that? He’s a different Diggle because he has a beard.
This means when The Flash ends next season, it will take the Arrowverse with it, and though we can hope for some kind of wrap-up that incorporates every show, the showrunners THERE have expressed reluctance. The Arrowverse will probably go out with a whimper instead of a bang.
50HellsofPain
July 6, 2022 @ 8:55 am
I believe they decided to go for an alternate Universe because route so they wont need to make arrowverse crossovers and they wont need to pay Michelle Benoist.
toddj82
July 6, 2022 @ 7:05 pm
Due to the recent collapse of the Arrowverse, this was purposefully done. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to “soft-reboot” it at some point from Superman & Lois that would be just insane.
I’m thrilled about the prospect of introducing those characters to our reality since many of Superman’s foes—most famously Lex—were snatched up by Supergirl and now they are were they truly belong. A show about Superman.