Stephen Amell ended his long-running role as Oliver Queen on the hit CW series Arrow when Season 8 came to a close back at the end of January. While Amell had already moved on, and signed on to a new Starz drama, Heels, before fans got the chance to see his final turn as the masked vigilante hero of Star City (and, you know, the multiverse), that doesn't mean that he's completely done with thinking about the show's legacy. Now that The CW seems to have renamed the Arrowverse, Amell has dropped a big ol' F-bomb about the shared DC comics universe shows getting a new name.
As any good DC fan will certainly know by now, The CW's Arrowverse wouldn't have been anything without Arrow. The gritty take on The Green Arrow and his heroic efforts to stop a wide variety of dastardly supervillains got the ball rolling for a shared DC comics universe on the network back in 2012, and led to The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman and upcoming series Superman & Lois joining the interconnected shows over the years. Amell appeared on the Inside of You podcast recently, and when asked about the Arrowverse getting a name change, said:
They may be trying to call it The CWverse. That fucking pissed me off. Honestly, I think that's probably a marketing department, frankly, trying to come up with content when they don't have any. Because I saw that ad for the first time [using that name] on the B-side of Comic-Con where all the shows would have footage and none of them do [due to COVID].
OK, Stephen! Tell us how you really feel, sir! To be honest, there were few fans who were totally on board with the idea of "The CWverse" when they peeped the ad to which Stephen Amell is referring. He's correct that the short spot allowed the network to debut the new term shortly after Comic-Con, but it also sent viewers a big mixed message in doing so.
The promo in question actually spent several of the first seconds focusing on Arrow and the fact that the drama got the shared universe started, which is appropriate credit where credit is due. By the end, though, it announced that all of the remaining shows were now part of The CWverse, which made it seem like those at The CW feel like Arrow should no longer be a factor in our memories of these stories, simply because it's now finished its run.
As Amell mentioned during his chat with host Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville's Lex Luthor), he thinks the announcement was basically meant to pull focus from the fact that there was no new footage to show of any of the series, seeing as how they hadn't been able to start filming on new seasons yet. While that may be true, Amell mentioned previously that he thought a more appropriate term, were they to rename the franchise, would be "the Berlantiverse" because of superproducer Greg Berlanti. Either way, I don't think we should expect any new name to catch on with fans any time soon.
Stephen Amell worked hard to help get the Arrowverse off of the ground, so while it makes sense that he'd be a little miffed about the change, he doesn't appear to be letting it take any significant wind out of his sails as he heads away from the franchise, noting:
I don't care if they stop calling it the Arrowverse but you don't need to come up with a new name. I don't know. I left of my own volition, but I’m allowed to complain about that a little bit.
I agree! We've got a while yet to wait to see any new promos from the rest of the Arrowverse shows (Yeah, I'm gonna be stubborn about this!), as they're not set to return to air until next year. To see what else you can watch right now, be sure to check out our guide to fall TV and see what's on tap for winter / spring 2021!
