The twin successes of ARROW and THE FLASH for The CW has resulted in a huge surge of interest for comic-book properties on U.S television. It also helps that Marvel's big movies continue to be popular, and are inspiring their own small-screen spin-offs. Today, The CW announced their intention to create a superhero Avengers-style team-up show, again developed by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim—the core writers behind Arrow and The Flash…
And this one will combine Arrow's Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh) and Sarah Lance/Black Canary (Caity Lotz), with The Flash's Firestorm (Victor Garber) and Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller). No idea why Robbie Amell wasn't included in that list, seeing as he plays the physical half of Firestorm. Is he being recast, or was that a mistake?
As fans of Arrow will tell you, the presence of Caity Lotz is of particular interest—seeing as her character Sarah Lance died at the beginning of season 3. This news presumably kills a future twist, revealing Sarah isn't actually dead. I have no idea how they're going to make that work, as it seemed pretty definitive to me. They had her body on a table for hours afterwards. Was she perhaps shot by a special poison that only gives the appearance of death, so she's actually been smuggled away somewhere ready for a grand return? Or she's been dunked into a Lazarus Pit at Ra's al Ghul's hideout?
Also intriguing that Captain Cold is a part of this team, as he's a clear villain. Is he going to switch sides and fight for the good guys, using his criminal background to help them? Or are reports a bit unclear, and he'll just be a familiar antagonist for the team to fight?
Atom and Firestorm are both popular side characters, which Arrow/Flash have been effectively developing within their current seasons, and there were rumours both could be given spin-off series. But it makes more sense to bring them together, to create a CW-branded super-team. This is exactly what Netflix are doing with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist—although the difference is that each of those characters will headline solo dramas.
Deadline also speculates that three more DC heroes will be joining this series, who've never appeared on TV before. Intriguing…
Anyway, this is all in the very early stages. Who knows if it'll become a pilot, let alone a TV series—but the chances are good. It helps that each character has already been road-tested on audiences in their parent shows.
What do you think? Excited or non-plussed? Are we hitting critical mass with the superhero genre yet? Or are you happy to see more of this genre from The CW, given their track record with DC characters?
