Now that we're fully settled into 2018, with midseason premieres a-plenty cropping up all over the primetime schedule, it's as good a time as any to look to the future to see what we'll be watching as the year goes on. But will The Flash, Supergirl and the other Arrow-verse shows become a part of that future by getting season renewals? It sounds likely, even though nothing is officially in the cards yet. Here's how The CW president Mark Pedowitz put it.
At the moment, it's a little too soon. We're noted for announcing at winter TCA that we're picking up shows, we just weren't ready to do that yet. A couple more weeks [and] we'll probably get around to it. I'm pretty confident we'll see them all back.
That doesn't sound like someone who's too worried about putting any of the shows within his network's current superhero lineup in jeopardy. Granted, Mark Pedowitz likely wouldn't want to sound worried about any of it even if he was, so perhaps that's to be expected. Pedowitz shared his DC-centered thoughts with everyone at the Television Critics Association's winter press event (via EW), and he made things sound even more promising by saying he believes certain Arrow-verse cast members have already signed on for extended stints.
That's particularly noteworthy in the case of the founding-father series Arrow, which is perhaps gearing up for post-season contract talks, now that it's headed for a potential Season 7. While contract extensions definitely don't guarantee a show's future, they certainly help as far as keeping track of which actors are still gung ho about continuing. Arrow star Stephen Amell has talked in the past about Arrow possibly lasting many more years, but is also aware that the show's hold on fans might not last that long. And for what it's worth, Amell publicly came out a couple of years ago and stated his current contract lasted through 2019, so perhaps that's when Mark Pedowitz will start thinking a little harder about giving Oliver Queen his swan song.
It's also probably worth noting that comic book fanatic and occasional The Flash and Supergirl director Kevin Smith somewhat recently claimed that he got the lowdown on what Flash's writers are planning for Season 5, which was a pretty surprising reveal, since we're still deep into The Thinker's masterplan for Barry and Central City. But then The Flash is the easy ratings winner among the four current DC shows on The CW, so that creative team deserves to have the most confidence about future seasons.
The CW's DC shows will get some interesting schedule changes in the near future, with Black Lightning joining The Flash on Tuesday nights, while Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow will soon trade places on Monday evenings. But the latter changes aren't specifically an issue of either show having ratings challenges, and Mark Pedowitz also made it fairly clear that none of the Arrow-verse series' creative decisions have had anything to do with the suspension-turned-termination of former executive producer and Flash showrunner Andrew Kreisberg, who was fired after reports surfaced of his sexual misconduct on the job.
Speaking more about the network's schedule as a whole, Mark Pedowitz reiterated his overall point by stating the network hasn't really formalized renewals for any of its shows, but that the conversations will kick off soon, now that year-end festivities are over.
It's just a question of the board and I getting together and having a discussion about it. We just weren't ready with the holidays and this came just days later. We'll get there. I'm confident most of our schedule is coming back.
Here's hoping the coming weeks will indeed offer up news about Arrow Season 7, The Flash Season 5, Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 and Supergirl Season 3. Until that happens, don't forget about all the midseason premieres coming in mid-January. Find out when they're all back, as well as when lots of other shows will debut, by bookmarking our midseason premiere schedule. Or check out our Superhero TV schedule if you're only interested in when 2018's most powerful characters will be around.
