Arrowverse

For the in-universe concept, see multiverse.

The "Arrowverse", also known as the CW Multiverse, or simply CWverse is a television franchise that is based on characters that appear in publications by DC Comics. The shared multiverse is akin to the DC universe in their comic books, which has had crossover plot elements, settings, and characters.

History

The CW began airing Arrow in fall 2012. Due to its success, the network began production for a The Flash spin-off the following year. Barry Allen was planned to be introduced in the eighth and ninth episodes of the show's second season, followed by the twentieth episode acting as a backdoor pilot. However, after executives saw the initial episodes, they decided to order the series straight to pilot. In early 2015, the CW announced a web-series for Vixen to air on the CW Seed. Two months later, The CW announced an additional series, DC's Legends of Tomorrow to air early 2016. On August 12, 2015, Wendy Mericle confirmed their version of John Constantine follows the same continuity as NBC's Constantine. On December 12, 2018, Marc Guggenheim confirmed their version of Barry Allen follows the same continuity as CBS's The Flash.

Media

Series name	Original run	Amount of media produced
Television series There have been a total of 654 episodes aired throughout the Arrowverse across four media platforms: The CW, CW Seed, The WB, NBC, and CBS.
The Flash	1990–1991	22 episodes
Birds of Prey	2002–2003	13 episodes
Arrow	2012–2020	170 episodes
The Flash	2014–present	138 episodes
Constantine	2014–2015	13 aired episodes; 1 unaired
Supergirl	2015–present	107 episodes
DC's Legends of Tomorrow	2016–present	82 episodes
Black Lightning	2018–present	51 episodes
Batwoman	2019–present	29 episodes
Superman & Lois	2021–present	5 episodes
Web series Airing on CW Seed and YouTube, three animated and two live action webseires have contributed to the Arrowverse with content being released online.
Vixen	2015–2016	12 episodes
Freedom Fighters: The Ray	2017–2018	12 episodes
Blood Rush	2013	6 webisodes
John Con Noir	2015	1 webisode
Chronicles of Cisco	2016	4 webisodes
Stretched Scene	2017	3 webisodes
Mister Parker's Cul De Sac	2020	5 webisodes
Comic book series Several comic book issues have been released online revolving around the characters in some of The CW television shows. Later the issues were released as a print graphic novel. As well, a comic book series was for CBS' The Flash in print. Several of the issues have been considered non-canon.
The Flash TV Special	1991	2 issues
Arrow	2012–2013	36 issues
Arrow: Season 2.5	2014–2015	24 issues
The Flash: Season Zero	2014–2015	24 issues
Arrow: The Dark Archer	2016	12 issues
Adventures of Supergirl	2016	13 issues (+1 special edition)
Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant	2019-2020	2 issues
Internet blogs Through the internet blogging sites Tumblr and Instagram, The CW promotes The Flash.
The Chronicles of Cisco	2015–present	101 blog posts
Novels Several novels have been released revolving around the characters in some of The CW television shows. Portions of the novels have been considered non-canon.
Arrow: Vengeance	2016
The Flash: The Haunting of Barry Allen	2016
Arrow: A Generation of Vipers	2017
The Flash: Hocus Pocus	2017
Supergirl: Age of Atlantis	2017
Arrow: Fatal Legacies	2018
The Flash: Johnny Quick	2018
Supergirl: Curse of the Ancients	2018
The Flash: Climate Changeling	2018
The Flash: The Tornado Twins	2018
Supergirl: Master of Illusion	2019
The Flash: Green Arrow's Perfect Shot	2019
The Flash: Supergirl's Sacrifice	2020
The Flash: The Legends of Forever	2021
Video games CBS released a video game to promote their television series, The Flash.
The Flash	1991 1993
TV shorts The CW has made a recent trend of releasing a non-canon advertisement for the current/upcoming seasons of the Arrowverse shows before a new airing block begins.
Superhero Fight Club	2015
Guitar Hero Challenge	2015
Superhero Fight Club 2.0	2016
Suit Up	2018
Nate AD	2020
TV specials The CW has released non-canon specials to promote different aspects of the Arrowverse series.
Year One	2013
Chasing Lightning	2014
DC's Legends of Tomorrow: Their Time Is Now	2016
Constantine: The Legend Continues	2018
Crisis Aftermath	2019
Arrow: Hitting the Bullseye	2020
Superman & Lois: Legacy of Hope	2021

Trivia

• As a further tie-in, DC Universe Online has a character skin for the Kara Danvers/Supergirl from the television series Supergirl.
• As of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the following universes are also tied-into the Arrowverse:
  • The Batman TV series universe (Set on Earth-66 in the original multiverse)
  • The Batman Anthology universe (Set on Earth-89 in the original multiverse)
  • The Superman Anthology universe (Set on Earth-96 in the original and new multiverses)
  • The Smallville universe (Set on Earth-167 in the original and new multiverses)
  • The Lucifer universe (Set on Earth-666 in the original and new multiverses)
  • The DC Extended Universe (Set on Earth-TUD13)
  • The Stargirl universe (Set on Earth-2 in the new multiverse)
  • The Swamp Thing universe (Set on Earth-19 in the new multiverse)
  • The Titans universe (Set on Earth-9 in the original and new multiverses)
  • The Doom Patrol universe (Set on Earth-21 in the new multiverse)
• The CW was attempting to produce a spinoff series of Arrow, titled Green Arrow and the Canaries, but decided not to move forward with the project.