Toward the end of 2019, the Arrowverse was firing on all cylinders. Much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe but on a microscopic scale, Greg Berlanti and the CW television network had assembled a surprisingly huge cast of superheroes into a shared universe that began with one unexpectedly successful project. A year later, though, the project was on life support. In 2023, we're just trying to enjoy the time we can as The Flash--and the Arrowverse along with it--comes to an end.
It wasn't the Anti-Monitor and his Crisis on Infinite Earths. It wasn't money, the pandemic, superhero exhaustion, or actor trouble, either--but rather a combination of all these factors hamstringing one of the weirdest and coolest projects we've ever seen on broadcast television.
Money was always going to be a problem. Despite 35+ seasons of Arrowverse shows--and successful series like Supernatural, Riverdale, and Walker--the CW was never profitable. Instead, the network made money by selling its shows to streaming services like Netflix, which would then give the network a bump at the beginning of their series' next season. However, you can only spend money for so long before you have to make it--and it's a miracle that the Arrowverse got as far as it did within this environment.
The COVID-19 pandemic put the brakes on all that Crisis momentum. The Arrowverse was set to reboot following the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. This wild crossover asserted that every live-action DC project ever was part of the same multiverse, going as far back as 1966's Batman, and including The Flash movie, which is set to debut later this year. Just two months after the crossover, though, the pandemic shut down production on pretty much all television.
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