Though each series occasionally has some (season-long) rough spots, the four superhero shows on The CW are the crown jewels of the network—mostly thanks to the fact that the big crossover in December gave The CW some of its best ratings ever. At PaleyFest in Los Angeles this weekend, the network and the stars of Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, and Legends Of Tomorrow held a panel and discussed where their respective shows will be going in the future, and it sounds like everyone involved is committed to sticking to this whole superhero thing for as long as possible.
The updates on Supergirl and Arrow were pretty light on new information, but executive producer Andrew Kreisberg highlighted the way Supergirl has taken on real-world issues this season—specifically immigration and LGBT rights—and noted that he’s “as proud of the episodes that touched on that” as he is of anything else in his career. At another point during the panel, Arrow star Stephen Amell brought up the increasingly elaborate crossover spectaculars that the superhero shows do, noting that he once asked CW President Mark Pedowitz if they would do one every year. His response: “You’re fucking right we are.”
While discussing The Flash, star Grant Gustin mentioned that he’s aware of the criticism the show has received this season about his character’s awful, awful, awful decision-making skills, and Kreisberg also confirmed that next season of The Flash won’t have yet another speedster as the big villain. In other words, the show might actually try and fix some of the biggest issues that people have had with it lately, specifically its tiresome reliance on speedster baddies and Barry Allen’s painfully dangerous stupidity.
Finally, since the series has somehow become the best part of The CW’s superhero stable this year, the most exciting reveals were saved for Legends Of Tomorrow. Executive producer Marc Guggenheim teased that there’s a “surprise crossover” coming up that nobody knows about, specifically noting that it’s a cameo from a character on a different CW superhero show, but all he’d say is that this person will show up in the penultimate episode of the show’s current season. Also, there will be a big Easter egg of some kind that “fans of cartoons” are going to love, and the author of a famous series of fantasy novels is going to show up soon as well—though that tease has already been spoiled by Gugenheim himself.
You can read more about the CW superhero panel in this Deadline report and this CBR story.