The DC universe on The CW went through some big changes this fall thanks to the Flashpoint arc on The Flash that altered the timeline of all three Earth-1 series. The Arrow character most affected by the Flashpoint timeline is undoubtedly John Diggle, whose baby daughter Sara was replaced by a baby boy named John Jr. The big question now is of whether the new John Jr. in the Flashpoint timeline is the same John Jr. who took up the mantle of the Green Arrow in one possible future, as seen on Legends of Tomorrow Season 1. Arrow and Legends executive producer Marc Guggenheim said this about John Jr.:
We go back and forth on that. That was certainly a notion of ours. It's hard for me to honestly answer without committing to a version of time travel, because in order for that to be the case, then Flashpoint would've had to have happened. You start to get into the very, very complicated time travel rules that, quite frankly, I as a writer don't have an appetite to answer unless we tell a story one day that deals with John Jr., and even then, I don't know if we would directly address that issue head on.
John Jr. made his DC TV debut in Legends of Tomorrow Season 1 as the man who became Green Arrow after Oliver Queen lost his arm and gave up his fight in Star City. For his part, John stopped using his family name by the 2046 timeline. Instead, he chose the name Connor Hawke for some reason that was never actually explained in-show. It came as a surprise when Oliver revealed that Connor is John Jr., and many fans jumped to the conclusion that John Sr. and Lyla had a child after Sara. Marc Guggenheim's explanation that the writers don't actually know if the John Jr. of Legends of Tomorrow is the same John Jr. that came into existence due to Flashpoint indicates that the folks at The CW don't intend on clarifying the rules of time travel any time soon.
As somebody who gets a headache whenever she has to think about the different ways that The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow handle time travel, I would welcome some clarification about how time travel does and does not work in The CW's DC universe. The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow handle the concept as well as its consequences differently. Still, it might be for the best if we never see John Jr. as Connor Hawke on any DC TV show.
The Star City of 2046 as seen on Legends Season 1 was a place so hellish that criminals took over, the first Green Arrow lost an arm, and Oliver grew a terrible goatee to sulk in the dark. Connor was fairly awesome as Green Arrow 2.0, but his reality is one that needed to never happen, and Sara at least seemed set on not letting Star City fall apart. Hopefully the Legends managed to stop the death, destruction, and goatee growth from ever happening.
We'll have to wait and see if Marc Guggenheim sticks to his assertion to EW that he doesn't intend to address the John Jr. question on Arrow or Legends of Tomorrow in the foreseeable future. Both shows are on hiatus until 2017. Take a look at our midseason TV premiere schedule to see when they and all the rest of your favorite shows return to the airwaves in the new year.
