Arrowverse creator Marc Guggenheim recently joined an interview with Showrunner Whisperer and explained how ‘Arrow’ had to save the entire CW:
“Shortly after the pilot got ordered to series, Peter Roth [president of Warner Bros. TV] took us out to lunch and basically laid out for us, in incredible detail, the reality that if ‘Arrow’ wasn’t a hit, there would be no more CW. So it was the pressure of having a show and keeping the show on the air – that’s one thing – but now we also have the pressure of keeping the whole network on the air. That’s another thing.”
‘Arrow’ was a superhero show from Guggenheim, Greg Berlanti, and Andrew Kreisberg, based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow. The series created the Arrowverse, leading to spinoffs like ‘The Flash,’ ‘Legends of Tomorrow,’ and ‘Supergirl.’
Other Statements On CW’s Creative Direction
The DC Comics story follows rich playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who gets lost at sea and returns with a mission to fight crime in his city. Guggenheim’s thoughts on the CW’s current creative state are similar to those shared by Jared Padalecki in June. Padalecki, who spent 25 years on the CW with shows like ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘Supernatural’ expressed disappointment over the cancellation of his latest show, ‘Walker’:
“My understanding is — and again, this is just what I’m told — that [owner] Nexstar is going in a different direction with the CW. I mean, they have an hour of ‘Trivial Pursuit’ and an hour of ‘Scrabble’ coming up. They’re just changing the network around where it’s not really going to be a TV network as much as it’s going to be, ‘Here’s something fun for an hour that you’ll never watch again, but hopefully you watch it. And it’s cheap!’ And I hate to say that, but I’m just being honest. I mean, f*ck it. They can’t fire me again.”
You can watch all eight seasons of ‘Arrow’ on Netflix, along with other past CW shows like ‘Supernatural,’ ‘The Flash,’ ‘Supergirl,’ ‘Black Lightning,’ and DC’s ‘Legends of Tomorrow.’
