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The Flash

Last night season two of The Flash debuted and tonight it’s time for season four of Arrow to premiere. Now, it’s easy to see how those two shows are connected. After all, they share a network, producers, and have crossed over numerous times. But how do these shows fit in with next summer’s Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad? And what about Gotham? AND WHERE DOES THIS MONTH’S NEW SHOW SUPERGIRL FIT IN?

Basically, DC has a fractured onscreen universe. There’s the “Arrowverse” which encompasses everything on the CW and spiraling out of Arrow. Then there’s the new “DC Extended Universe” (or DCEU) which includes all the new movies *after* Man of Steel. Sorry, Christopher Nolan fans. The Dark Knight trilogy may live on in your hearts, but it’s as relevant to present day DC comics adaptations as the Tim Burton flicks. Then, Gotham lives in its own gleefully warped universe. Finally, it’s unclear where Supergirl fits in. It has the same show runner (Greg Berlanti) and tone as everything in the “Arrowverse,” and there has been talk that Berlanti wants it to tie in with the rest of the shows. However, CBS’s Nina Tassler wants to keep Supergirl strictly on her network for now.

If that’s at all confusing to you, then check out this handy illustrated guide to what goes where.

Now, if you have eagle eyes, you’ll have noticed something immediately. It’s next to impossible to integrate the TV and film universes because of one pesky problem: The Flash, aka Barry Allen, is a different person in each of them. In the “Arrowverse” he’s played with boyish gusto by Grant Gustin and in the DCEU, he’s going to be portrayed by willowy indie actor Ezra Miller. That’s not the only place where the DC universes negate each other. For instance, who is Superman on Supergirl? It’s not Henry Cavill, is it? Why are there so many Ra’s Al Ghuls? And can we be completely sure that Gotham is not Ben Affleck’s Batman’s origin story?

You could argue that Marvel has a similar issue. After all, not everything “Marvel” falls into the MCU (that’s the “Marvel Cinematic Universe”). The X-Men and the Fantastic Four belong to Fox. However, Marvel’s properties do a good job of keeping everything separate. The only hiccup was when X-Man and Avenger Quicksilver was slotted for X-Men: Days of Future Past and Avengers: Age of Ultron, but it worked out because the takes were so different and accounted for such a small part of the action. Once Bryan Singer wraps up X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, the X-Men universe should fold back in on itself like a worm eating its tale. After that, there is a marked opportunity for Marvel to negotiate with Fox and Constantin Pictures for the X-Men and Fantastic Four rights (like they did with Sony for Spider-Man). The irony is that by keeping the universes completely separate, Marvel has a chance to seamlessly merge them if and when they finally get the greenlight on including the rest of their characters onscreen. By splitting the “Arrowverse” apart from the DCEU, DC has cut themselves off from having a master onscreen universe before the mid 2020s — and they’d have to reboot everything to do that.

Maybe this doesn’t matter! Maybe we’re splitting hairs, but here at Decider we like to be able to stream everything — preferably in a sane and logical order. You can do this with the Marvel films and movies (all while pretending that the X-Men and Fantastic Four co-exist or are happening in a parallel universe). You can do this with Star Wars. But you can’t really take all the cool DC shows and films that are out right now and merge them all together. It’s a bummer for control freaks like us who want our storytelling to be neat and contained. Then again, I don’t envy the parents who will have to explain to their kids how both Grant Gustin and Ezra Miller can be The Flash at the same time. It will be like how my mom had to break it to me that Val Kilmer was going to be Batman. (“Well, sweetie, it all has to do with actors’ contracts and the business deals of Hollywood...”)

How To Stream the DC Universes:

“Arrowverse”
[Where to Stream Arrow]
[Where to Stream The Flash]
[Watch Vixen on YouTube]
[Where to Stream Constantine]
[Watch the Trailer for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow]

Gotham
[Where to Stream Gotham]

DC Extended Universe
[Where to Stream Man of Steel]
[Watch the Trailer for Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice]
[Watch the Trailer for Suicide Squad]

Supergirl

[Watch Supergirl on CBS All Access when it premieres on October 26]

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