What exactly are they putting in the water over at the CW? By the beginning of 2016 there are going to be three hours a week of DC Comics based television within a shared universe on one network. Now it looks like a fourth hour may not be too far behind that. A stand alone series for Hawkgirl may already be in development.
SpoilerTV is reporting that a separate series for the winged hero, whom we technically haven’t even met yet, is already in early development at the House that Arrow Built (which is what I’m calling the CW from now on). The spinoffs have been coming fast and furious ever since Barry Allen was first introduced in Season 2 of Arrow, leading into the first spinoff, The Flash. Then, almost as soon as we met Ray Palmer, aka The Atom, in Season 3 talks of another spinoff began. That show turned out to be 2016’s Legends of Tomorrow a superhero team up which will include characters from both Flash and Arrow as well as brand new characters. Hawkgirl is one of these.
Since the show is apparently still in very early stages of development we likely won’t see anything (if we ever see anything) until well after Hawkgirl is an established character in her own right. Still, if producers think the character, and the actress Ciara Renée, is strong enough to headline her own series then it could be a serious blow to Legends to lose her. Unless of course there are other characters waiting in the wings ready to take that spotlight. Could the Legends team rotate through multiple characters over time? Depending on how big the DC Television Universe is going to get, that may be one way to introduce many characters over time.
Greg Berlanti, the man who got this whole thing rolling and has been responsible for all of these shows on CW so far, as well as Supergirl over on CBS (which is still part of the same universe according to Berlanti), is not mentioned in the story so we can only hope that he’s involved in this if the discussions are serious. Fans love what he’s done for both Arrow and Flash and while four related shows on one network seems like a lot, if they’re four good shows don’t expect anybody to complain.
While DC has been slow off the mark in building their own cinematic universe to rival Marvel, they seem well on their way to owning television. If Hawkgirl really is going to get her own show one day, that just makes us even more excited to see her for the first time. An event we believe will be part of the Season 2 premiere of The Flash this fall.
