Arrowverse

The "Arrowverse", also known as the CW Multiverse or simply CWverse, is a group of television programs that take place in a shared universe. It is based on characters that appear in publications by DC Comics. The shared multiverse is like the DC universe in these comic books. The programs have had crossover stories, settings and characters from other series in the group. The group began with the series Arrow in 2012. Over time, it added The Flash, Supergirl, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman and others.

Arrowverse
Created by	Greg Berlanti Marc Guggenheim Andrew Kreisberg Geoff Johns Ali Adler Phil Klemmer Salim Akil Caroline Dries
Original work	Arrow
Years	2012–2023
Movies and television
Television series	Arrow The Flash Supergirl Legends of Tomorrow Black Lightning Batwoman
Web series	Vixen Freedom Fighters: The Ray
Miscellaneous
Crossovers	Constantine The Flash (1990)

History

The CW began airing Arrow in fall 2012. The program was very successful. This caused the network to make a The Flash spin-off the next year. Barry Allen was planned to be in the eighth and ninth episodes of the second season of the series. The twentieth episode of that season was to be used as a backdoor pilot for the new series. After the people in charge saw the first episodes, they decided to order a pilot episode for the series rather than waiting until the end of the season. In early 2015, the CW announced a web-series for Vixen to air on the CW Seed. Two months later, The CW said an additional series, DC's Legends of Tomorrow was to be be broadcast in early 2016. On August 12, 2015, Wendy Mericle said their version of John Constantine would follows the same continuity as NBC's Constantine. On December 12, 2018, Marc Guggenheim said their version of Barry Allen follows the same continuity as CBS's The Flash.

Television series

Six television series make up the Arrowverse franchise: Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning and Batwoman. All series in total amount to 699 episodes across 37 seasons of television.

Series	Season	Episodes	Originally aired		Showrunner(s)
			First aired	Last aired
Arrow	1	23	October 10, 2012	May 15, 2013	Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim
	2	23	October 9, 2013	May 14, 2014
	3	23	October 8, 2014	May 13, 2015	Marc Guggenheim
	4	23	October 7, 2015	May 25, 2016	Wendy Mericle and Marc Guggenheim
	5	23	October 5, 2016	May 24, 2017
	6	23	October 12, 2017	May 17, 2018
	7	22	October 15, 2018	May 13, 2019	Beth Schwartz
	8	10	October 15, 2019	January 28, 2020	Marc Guggenheim and Beth Schwartz
The Flash	1	23	October 7, 2014	May 19, 2015	Andrew Kreisberg
	2	23	October 6, 2015	May 24, 2016	Andrew Kreisberg, Gabrielle Stanton, and Aaron and Todd Helbing
	3	23	October 4, 2016	May 23, 2017	Andrew Kreisberg, and Aaron and Todd Helbing
	4	23	October 10, 2017	May 22, 2018	Andrew Kreisberg and Todd Helbing
	5	22	October 9, 2018	May 14, 2019	Todd Helbing
	6	19	October 8, 2019	May 12, 2020	Eric Wallace
	7	18	March 2, 2021	July 20, 2021
	8	20	November 16, 2021	June 29, 2022
	9	13	February 8, 2023	May 24, 2023
Supergirl	1	20	October 26, 2015	April 18, 2016	Greg Berlanti, Ali Adler, Sarah Schechter and Andrew Kreisberg
	2	22	October 10, 2016	May 22, 2017
	3	23	October 9, 2017	June 18, 2018	Andrew Kreisberg, Jessica Queller and Robert Rovner
	4	22	October 14, 2018	May 19, 2019	Jessica Queller and Robert Rovner
	5	19	October 6, 2019	May 17, 2020
	6	20	March 30, 2021	November 9, 2021
Legends of Tomorrow	1	16	January 21, 2016	May 19, 2016	Phil Klemmer and Chris Fedak
	2	17	October 13, 2016	April 4, 2017
	3	18	October 10, 2017	April 9, 2018	Phil Klemmer and Marc Guggenheim
	4	16	October 22, 2018	May 20, 2019	Phil Klemmer and Keto Shimizu
	5	14 (+1)	January 21, 2020	June 2, 2020
	6	15	May 2, 2021	September 5, 2021
	7	13	October 13, 2021	March 2, 2022
Black Lightning	1	13	January 16, 2018	April 17, 2018	Salim Akil
	2	16	October 9, 2018	March 18, 2019
	3	16	October 7, 2019	March 9, 2020
	4	13	February 8, 2021	May 24, 2021
Batwoman	1	20	October 6, 2019	May 17, 2020	Caroline Dries
	2	18	January 17, 2021	June 27, 2021
	3	13	October 13, 2021	March 2, 2022

Arrow (2012–2020)

Billionaire playboy Oliver Queen returns home after being stranded on a deserted island for five years. Upon his return to Starling City, Oliver rekindles his relationships and spends his nights hunting down wealthy criminals as a hooded vigilante known as the Green Arrow.

The Flash (2014–2023)

See the main article: The Flash (2014 TV series)

Crime-scene investigator Barry Allen awakens from a nine-month coma after being struck by lightning due to the S.T.A.R. Labs' particle accelerator explosion and finds himself with superhuman speed. Barry vows to use his new powers to protect Central City as the Flash, a masked superhero, while he pursues his mother's murderer, the Reverse-Flash.

Supergirl (2015–2021)

See the main article: Supergirl (TV series)

Kara Zor-El, who was sent to Earth from Krypton as a 13-year-old and taken in by the Danvers family, must learn to embrace her powers after previously hiding them. After an unexpected disaster, Kara is forced to reveal her powers, and becomes National City's protector.

Legends of Tomorrow (2016–2022)

Rip Hunter travels back in time to the present day where he brings together a team of heroes and villains in an attempt to prevent Vandal Savage from destroying the world and time itself.

Black Lightning (2018–2021)

High school principal Jefferson Pierce, who retired from his superhero persona Black Lightning nine years ago after seeing the effects it had on his family, is forced to become a vigilante again when the rise of the local gang called The 100 led by Tobias Whale leads to increased crime and corruption in his community of Freeland.

Batwoman (2019–2022)

After the disappearance of Batman, Kate Kane must overcome her own demons before being able to protect the streets of Gotham as Batwoman and becoming their symbol of hope. From the second season onward, after Kate's plane mysteriously crashes and she is believed to be dead, Ryan Wilder takes up the mantle of Batwoman.

Web series

Two television series make up the Arrowverse web series franchise: Vixen, and Freedom Fighters: The Ray. All series in total amount to 24 episodes across four seasons of television.

Series	Season	Episodes	Originally released	Showrunner(s)
Vixen	1	6	August 25 – September 29, 2015	Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg
	2	6	October 13 – November 18, 2016
Freedom Fighters: The Ray	1	6	December 8, 2017	Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim
	2	6	July 18, 2018

Vixen (2015–2016)

After her parents were killed in Africa by local corruption, Mari McCabe inherits her family's Tantu Totem, gaining the powers of animals, using them to fight as Vixen to stop threats like those that claimed her family.

Freedom Fighters: The Ray (2017–2018)

Raymond "Ray" Terrill is a reporter who gains light-based powers after being exposed to a genetic light bomb. Ray discovers the bomb in his investigation of a secret government project attempting to harness the power of light and weaponize it. The Ray is a member of the Freedom Fighters on Earth-X, a world in the multiverse where the Nazis won World War II.