Since The Flash spun out of events in Arrow, The CW’s universe of superheroes, dubbed by fans as the ‘Arrowverse’, has grown very much since then. We’ve had the addition of another spinoff, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and since Supergirl’s switch from CBS to The CW, that makes four connected shows, though Supergirl takes place in an alternate universe from the other three.
Now that a thin connection between Supergirl’s universe has been established with the Earth-1 universe that is home to Green Arrow, The Flash and the Legends, fans have raised the question of why we haven’t seen alternate versions of characters like Alex Danvers, Jimmy Olsen, Winn Schlott on Earth-1, or Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow or Laurel Lance on Supergirl’s Earth. Well, producer Andrew Kreisberg has spoken to IGN about why we haven’t seen alternate versions of the characters popping up across the various shows, stating that it is due to a desire to keep it from becoming a gimmick.
“The problem with that is it feels to us like if we do that once, we’re going to open the floodgates of insanity,” said Kreisberg. “It’s like Supergirl’s over here, and it’s its own show. Technically speaking, it’s just another Earth, the same way Earth-2 is or Earth-3 or Earth-19. So technically speaking, there should be an Alex Danvers on Earth-1, or Earth Prime. But if we start doing that, I just feel like… Not that all hell hasn’t broken loose already, but unless we had a really good story for it. The more you start to do that stuff, the more it can very easily become annoying or like, ‘Here we go again.’ Even on Supergirl itself, like Chyler Leigh got the opportunity to play a White Martian impersonating Alex. Already built into our show, there’s already characters playing different versions of themselves. It could very easily spiral out of control.”
Do you agree with Kreisberg, or would you like to see alternate versions of the characters appearing in different shows? Let us know your thoughts below…
Originally published February 28, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
