Last week, CBS released the first look at the upcoming series Supergirl, which will feature the adventures of Kara Zor-El as she follows in the footsteps of her famous cousin and uses her powers to become a superhero. Understandably, this has led to a desire from many fans to see the series somehow cross over with fellow DC shows The Flash and Arrow, both of which are on The CW. However, it looks like Supergirl won’t be getting that opportunity, at least in the near future, as CBS has its own plans in mind for the Kryptonian.
Although it was originally reported earlier this year that Supergirl would be able to cross over with The Flash and Arrow, per executive producer Greg Berlanti’s deal, now Berlanti has informed Variety that fans shouldn’t expect to see Kara team up with either Barry Allen or Oliver Queen, at least for the time being. As Berlanti said:
The network has said publicly at this point they’re going to keep her to themselves. I always approach the shows as a fan first, so I would love to see it. I think in success, all things are possible. But there’s a lot that would have to happen before everybody might say yes to that.
CBS president Nina Tassler has previously expressed her desire to keep Supergirl confined solely to her channel, and this new report reaffirms that we shouldn’t expect to see crossovers happen anytime soon. While the prospect of seeing the Girl of Steel team up with the Scarlet Speedster and Emerald Archer is an exciting prospect for fans, it sounds like for now CBS is focusing now on making Supergirl a successful show on its own rather than worry about her working with other superheroes from a different network.
Outside of the logistics issues between CBS and the CW, the main problem with having Supergirl exist in the same universe as The Flash and Arrow involves the history of superheroes in these respective shows. On the CW shows, The Arrow is the first public costumed hero, and everyone else has come after, whereas the Supergirl trailer implies that Superman has been around awhile. Plus, superpowers (excluding scientific concoctions like the Mirakuru) have only been around barely a year on Arrow and The Flash, which would make it surprising that no one mentioned the flying alien wearing a red and blue costume at all over the years.
Of course, all of this could be remedied if there was a Crisis-event (something DC fans are quite familiar with) that somehow merged these universes together. For now though, Kara’s going to have to play the superhero game by herself, barring an appearance from the Man of Steel himself, of course. Meanwhile, The Flash and Arrow have the Legends of Tomorrow series and more coming up on The CW, so they’re all set on crossovers for awhile.
Supergirl will fly into action this November, and will air on Mondays at 8/7c on CBS.
