This fall, The CW will increase its already impressive interconnected comic book universe by adding Supergirl to the mix, which will lead to a four-way mega-crossover that no Earths have ever seen before. And now it looks like the creative team behind the shows will also give one particular Arrow character access to every show, as actor John Barrowman is now officially a series regular on not only his own home show, but also The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl. That's a lot of traveling for Malcolm Merlyn.
That's right, one of the most villainous patriarchs on DC TV will not only give Oliver Queen and Star City reason to assume bad things are afoot in Season 5, but according to TVLine, Merlyn will also apparently pop up in Central City, National City and...wherever the hell Rip Hunter and his crew are on any particular day. It's a pretty incredible concept, and one that would have been a lot more exciting had Arrow not put Malcolm Merlyn through the character development wringer, turning him from a vengeance-fueled villain-in-hiding to the new Ra's al Ghul to a functioning (if only occasional) ally of Team Arrow. But even though joining more shows probably won't help that, it's hard to complain about more John Barrowman on our televisions.
We have already seen Malcolm Merlyn showing up on The Flash before, for the Arrow crossover that was used to set up Legends of Tomorrow, and it isn't a stretch to see how he could appear on the latter show. But since Supergirl takes place in a different dimension, we probably won't find Merlyn creeping around CatCo until after the big crossover explains how Kara's world connects to everything else.
Strangely enough, having access to all four series isn't something that's exclusive to John Barrowman's villain. You might recall that Wentworth "Captain Cold" Miller also got contractually boosted up to series regular for all four CW DC shows, a reveal that was quite shocking, considering how his last Legends of Tomorrow episode went. I assume that Miller's promotion will be tied to the Flashpoint narrative that will presumably affect more than just The Flash this fall, but Merlyn's new expanded role is still a mystery to me.
Arrow Season 5 is set to debut on Wednesday, October 5, with The Flash Season 3 bowing one day earlier. Supergirl Season 2, meanwhile, will premiere on Monday, October 11, with Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 starting up on Thursday, October 13.
