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Trivia / Arrowverse

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  • Acting for Two: Becomes more prominent after The Multiverse is introduced, as characters start meeting their respective Alternate Self. Special mention goes to Tom Cavanagh, as between impersonators and alternate universe versions of Harrison Wells the number of different personalities he has to come up with grows exponentially. John Wesley Shipp is similar, if only for bringing in The Flash (1990) as part of the multiverse.
  • Ascended Fanon: The Fan Nickname "Arrowverse" has been used by at least two executive producers of the shows: Marc Guggenheim in this promo about the Vixen webseries, and Andrew Kreisberg in an interview.
  • Awesome, Dear Boy:
    • Allison Paige who portrayed Eliza Harmon / Trajectory enjoyed the role and considered it was a good role to play, even though she was only in it for one episode, the rest being Fake Shemp appearances via archive footage.
    • This trope also applies to Julie Gonzalo who portrays Andrea Rojas / Acrata, mixed with Money, Dear Boy; she wanted to do a superhero show and thought this was an excellent opportunity.
  • The Cast Showoff:
  • Cast the Runner-Up:
    • Liam McIntyre was reportedly the runner-up for the role of Oliver Queen had Stephen Amell not been cast. McIntyre would later go on to portray Weather Wizard in The Flash (2014).
    • Before she was cast as Patty Spivot, Shantel VanSanten was one of the actresses considered to play Laurel Lance on Arrow when that show was still being conceptualized.
    • Rachel Skarsten was considered to play Laurel Lance, effectively reprising her Birds of Prey (2002) role. She was eventually cast on the other side of the Bat-Family, in Batwoman (2019) as Alice.
    • Andy Mietnus auditioned for The Flash before the casting of Grant Gustin. He would eventually go on to portray Hartley Rathaway.
    • Jeremy Jordan originally auditioned to play Barry as well, but was casted as Supergirl's Winn Schott.
    • Rick Cosnett was originally considered to portray Jay Garrick, not Eddie Thawne.
    • Keiynan Lonsdale originally auditioned for Jefferson Jackson, but the showrunners decided he's better suited to play Wally West on The Flash (2014) so he was cast as that instead.
  • Creator Backlash:
    Katie Cassidy: "I’ve been very transparent about the whole thing: I didn’t want to leave."
    • During an interview in podcast Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, Stephen Amell stated that he didn't like the franchise being officially named CWVerse and he preferred the name "Arrowverse".
  • Directed by Cast Member: Among the actors who have directed for their respective shows are: Tom Cavanagh, David Ramsey, Danielle Panabaker, David Harewood, Melissa Benoist, Chyler Leigh, Caity Lotz, and Katie Cassidy will be directing an episode of their shows.
  • Exiled from Continuity:
  • Executive Meddling:
    • What characters the producers can and can't use depends if DC has other plans for them. It seems to be a pretty arbitrary process; DC has no problem having a Flash TV show and a Flash movie set in another verse but they banned Harley Quinn and Deadshot from being on Arrow because of the Suicide Squad film. As Marc Guggenheim puts it "These are DC’s characters, we’re just renting them. We use the characters that they tell us we can use, when we can use them.” An unofficial rule seems to be that while main characters can exist in both the CWverse and the movies (for example, the Flash), they cannot exist as a mere recurring character like Deadshot or Harley in the CW universe while being a star character in the movies. Besides the examples above:
    • Originally Ted Kord/Blue Beetle was supposed to be in Arrow season 3 but the highers-up at DC had other plans for him, so Ray Palmer/The Atom was brought in as a substitute. This resulted in Arrow Ray having more in common with Ted than comics Ray (with a healthy dose of Tony Stark as well), and he wasn't confirmed to have his signature shrinking power until Legends.
    • Marc Guggenheim said in a December 2017 interview, that DC would not allow The Question to be in the verse as he's among the many characters they "have plans for".
    • Brandon Routh is finally playing Superman again in Crisis on Infinite Earths, years after Superman Returns. But Warner Bros did not allow them to use his suit from that film for some reason.note  As a result, he's wearing a suit based on the Kingdom Come incarnation of Superman instead.
  • Fake Guest Star: Some recurring actors put in enough time equal or more than the series regulars. Caity Lotz clocked 22 episodes of Arrow season 2 as an ordinary guest star. Brandon Routh put in 16 episodes for Season 3 and was given a "Special Guest Star" distinction. Come Year 4, the shows began using a "Special Appearance By" billing for actors who were advertised as main cast members, but were technically recurring note .
  • Hypothetical Casting: According to Marc Guggenheim, if Bruce Wayne was to finally appear, he'd rather him be played by Jensen Ackles. The role ultimately ended up going to Warren Christie instead.
  • I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: The 'Verse has plenty of alumnae from Spartacus, Prison Break, Glee, Doctor Who, Firefly, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, the Law & Order series, Star Trek, 24, Justified, True Blood, Smash, Homeland, Teen Wolf, The Walking Dead and the Final Destination film series. The Flash even cast actors from the previous Flash series from 1990, not to mention several DC Comics adaptation veterans who worked together before, especially from the DC Animated Universe. Then there are actors/actresses appearing together in some shows unrelated to all of the above. Actors from the producers' Production Posse are also present.
  • Lying Creator:
    • It was stated that no aliens or anything space related would show up on the shows. Then it was revealed in Legends of Tomorrow that the Thanagarians exist. And they apparently conquer Earth in the 22nd century. Then Supergirl is made part of the Arrowverse and the Dominators show up in the 2016-2017 Crossover.
    • The press releases for the 2016-2017 season said that Captain Cold and Laurel were to be major recurring players while Malcolm Merlyn was to be a regular on all the shows. It was nothing but hype as Cold and Laurel only made a handful of appearances, while Merlyn's non-Legends appearances have all been explicit crossovers, and then he was killed off in the Arrow Season 5 finale.
  • Money, Dear Boy:
    • Julie Gonzalo took on the role of Andrea Rojas partially for the paycheck, but she admits she did enjoy the role, so unlike some examples of this trope, it wasn't purely for the paycheck and nothing else.
    • Jen Oleksiuk, Canadian actress who portrayed Amelia Earhart, who in this continuity becomes a Half-Human Hybrid, took the role for the money mainly.
  • No Stunt Double: Quite a few of the actors, most prominently Stephen Amell and Caity Lotz, are trained enough to do a fair few of their own stunts, although some of the more difficult stunts are handled by professionals.
  • The Other Darrin:
    • Infamously, Sara Lance was originally played by Jacqueline MacInnes Wood before Caity Lotz took over staring Arrow Season 2 - the former is brunette while the latter is blonde.
    • Olivia Cheng originally plays Linda Park as an Easter Egg before the role was recast as a Recurring Character now being played by Malese Jow.
    • The mugshot of Mark Mardon was done by a different actor during The Flash's pilot episode before Liam McIntyre officially takes over the role midway through the season.
    • Kuasa was voiced by Anika Noni Rose in Vixen and played by Tracy Ifeachor in Legends of Tomorrow.
  • Out of Order:
    • Trying to juggle and balance airdates between the shows and their concurrent stories has proven difficult to handle. The deliberate plotlines being shared between shows work out alright, such as "Flash vs Arrow" and "The Brave and the Bold" airing as a special two night event. But when characters are shared without actually sharing plotlines it often ends up being vague and confusing on when this would take place on the other show. Most notably, Barry's appearance on Supergirl revealed a major plot development for Barry weeks before his show caught up (he was using Eobard Thawne's tachyon generator to increase his speed, a device that attached to his chest around the lightning bolt symbol). At one point later in the Flash's second season, Barry loses his speed for a few episodes, but a scene in an episode of Arrow that aired after the first of these episodes showed that he'd gotten it back, 2 weeks before the episode in which he did aired.
    • The same thing occurs in the Crisis on Earth-X miniseries. Normally, they follow their weekly schedule with Supergirl first, followed by The Flash, then Legends of Tomorrow, and lastly Arrow. For the event and that event alone, the Arrow episode is Part 2, set directly after the Supergirl tie-in, and right before The Flash or Legends. Fortunately, some networks decided to alter their schedules to air the episodes chronologically.
  • The Pete Best: Overlaps with all examples (so far) of The Other Darrin above.
  • Production Posse: A lot of DC Comics adaptation veterans have appeared in the shows.
  • Queer Character, Queer Actor:
    • Wentworth Miller, who initially plays the straight Leonard Snart / Captain Cold from Earth-1 and then the gay "Leo" Snart / Citizen Cold from Earth-X. In 2020, Miller announced that he would no longer play straight characters hence why he refused to return for a sixth season of Prison Break.
    • Russell Tovey, who plays the gay Ray Terrill/The Ray, is also gay himself. In fact, Leo and Ray are dating. It's unclear if Ray's Earth-X doppelganger (also voiced by Tovey) was gay, as he's killed before this can be revealed.
    • While Victor Garber, who is gay, plays the straight (and happily married) Professor Stein, the Flash episode "Duet" features an alternate universe where Stein is married to a man.
    • In a similar way, queer actress Maisie Richardson-Sellers initially played the straight Amaya Jiwe (Vixen) in Legends of Tomorrow but in season 4, she got recast as pansexual demon Charlie.
    • Gay villain-turned-good guy Hartley Rathway, aka Pied Piper, is played by bisexual actor Andy Mientus.
    • Supergirl:
      • Season 4 introduces transgender hero Nia Nal aka Dreamer, played by transgender actress Nicole Maines.
      • Chyler Leigh (unspecific LGBT) as lesbian Alex Danvers on Supergirl - though Leigh came out after her character and said Alex's story helped her work it out.
    • In season 7 of Arrow, William Clayton (Oliver's son) as an adult is played by gay actor Ben Lewis.
    • Batwoman (2019):
      • Ruby Rose, who identifies as a lesbian, plays the titular character, who is also a lesbian. The casting call for Kate Kane specifically asked for a queer actress, though the producers had also been prepared to cast a straight actress as a last resort. Ruby Rose's casting fulfilled the original intention.
      • When she left the show, the producers made sure to be clear they were looking for another LGBT actress as the replacement. They ended up casting bisexual Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder, the next Batwoman, who's also lesbian.
      • Bevin Bru, who plays Angelique (Ryan's ex-girlfriend) is bisexual as well. Given the above, it's probably a deliberate choice.
  • Real-Life Relative:
  • Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • Recursive Adaptation: Both Arrow and The Flash have tie-in comics.
  • Referenced by...: In Jane the Virgin: "Chapter Forty-Seven", Rogelio visits the CW offices and tries to butter up the execs:
    Rogelio: A superhero for every night of the week — what programming genius!
  • Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Andrew Kreisberg was suspended from his role as producer and show-runner on November 10, 2017, after numerous allegations of sexual harassment over his career came to light. At the end of November, he was officially fired outright.
  • Role Reprise:
    • The Flash started bringing in characters from previous DC-based shows played by their original actors, most prominently Mark Hamill as the Trickster and John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen/the Flash himself. Crisis on Infinite Earths is set to have more of these, including not only Brandon Routh (who already is an Arrowverse cast member) but also Tom Welling as Clark Kent/Superman.
    • Tara Strong voices Harley Quinn yet again.
    • Mark Hamill played the Trickster in the 1990s Flash show and in Justice League Unlimited.
    • John Wesley Shipp reprises this version of Barry for Elseworlds (2018) after the 90's series was cancelled early.
    • The New Reichsmen are portrayed by their main counterparts' actors, along with Tom Cavanagh as Eobard Thawne.
    • While Prometheus is played by a different actor to Earth-1 Prometheus due to being different characters under the mask, Michael Dorn does reprise his role as the voice of Prometheus while he's masked.
    • Thanks to Heat Wave turning out to be Chronos, Steve Blum voicing Chorons falls into this as he voiced Mick before.
    • Season 3 of Batwoman sees Victoria Cartagena reprise her role from Gotham as Renee Montoya.
  • Screwed by the Lawyers: The reason John Constantine had such a long time between guest-starring in the Arrow episode "Haunted'' and showing up on Legends.
  • Trolling Creator: After a photo of the Arrow and Firestorm surfaced on the internet, fans assumed there was a crossover of some sort. Eventually, Robbie Amell had to intervene and clarify it was a joke. Then it turns out that Firestorm, Flash and the Arrow all team up against the Reverse-Flash, so we got trolled twice.
  • Troubled Production: Because of to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2020 run was cut short for The Flash (2014), Supergirl (2015) and Batwoman (2019) due to production being halted out of health concerns, and no crossover event was made.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Cameron Cuffe would have reprised his role as Seg-El from Krypton for the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, but they had scheduling problems.
    • Michael Rosenbaum was approached by Warner Bros about reprising his role as Lex Luthor from Smallville in Crisis on Infinite Earths as well. Although he doesn't consider the role an Old Shame and had no scheduling problems, he turned down the chance to reprise his role because Warner Bros. didn't mention anything about what his role would be.
  • Writer Revolt:
    • There are numerous restrictions on which characters can and can't be used, and the writers are increasingly chaffing under them. The prime examples are admitting that Oracle exists out there somewhere, as well as bringing back Floyd Lawton as a doppelganger on Earth-2 after they had to kill him off because of the Suicide Squad (2016) movie.
    • It's even taking place across the shows within the universe, as Black Siren turned up on The Flash (2014) shortly after the character's counterpart was killed off on Arrow, and Team Flash talked about how much they loved the character in question; on top of that, Black Siren's abilities were generally viewed as a better depiction of the comic book character.
  • You Look Familiar:
    • An amusing side-effect of adopting The Flash (1990) into the multiverse of the Arrowverse. John Wesley Shipp and other actors from that series have had significant roles on the 2014 show (including an amusing use of recycled archive footage to depict Mark Hamill's Trickster character 25 years ago in the prime universe). But when images of The Multiverse are seen, Shipp ends up playing both Henry Allen in the prime universe and a Flash elsewhere in the multiverse. And at the end of Season 2 it's revealed he's also Jay Garrick.
    • Jeri Ryan has guest starred on both The Flash (1990) and Arrow as two different characters.
    • Constantine main cast member Charles Halford guest-starred on Supergirl as Jemm, an alien from Saturn who is obviously not the Alternate Self of Chas Chandler.
      • The new Dinah Drake, Juliana Harkavy was on an episode of Constantine as a minor character Sarah.
      • Similarity Laura Regan previously guest-starred on Constantine as a character named Claire then appeared on Legends Of Tomorrow as a woman named Jane.
      • Jeremy Davies who played Ritchie Simpson on Constantine also plays Dr. John Deegan in the 2018 crossover Elseworlds.
    • Peter Bryant guest starred on both Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow as two different characters.
    • Mackenzie Gray played a Time Master in Legends of Tomorrow Season 1 before guest starring in Supergirl Season 3 as a completely different character.
    • Vanessa Przada previously played Erika Morrison in the Supergirl and younger Ava Sharpe in Legends of Tomorrow.
    • Melissa Roxburgh played Blake (a high school friend of Thea's) in Arrow season 1 and Betty Seaver in Legends of Tomorrow, potentially implying that it was a case of an identical granddaughter.
    • Vincent Gale was Pyotr Friedkin in Arrow, then Dr. Rohan Vose in Supergirl.
    • Hiro Kanagawa played Dr. Lamb in Arrow then played Director Bennett in Legends of Tomorrow.
    • Al Sapienza played a Villain of the Week in Season 1 of Arrow, then played Joe West's partner in the pilot episode of The Flash.
    • Patrick Sabongui played a drug dealer in a Season 1 episode of Arrow before playing David Singh on The Flash.
    • Warren Christie played insignificant character Carter Bowen in a Season 1 episode of Arrow. He also played Bruce Wayne on Batwoman (well Tommy Elliot masquerading as Bruce Wayne).
    • Phil LaMarr provides the dubbed-over voice of Peter Merkel / Ragdoll in The Flash and portrays Malefic on Supergirl in live-action.
    • Thanks to Crisis on Infinite Earths, we now also have three for Brandon Routh, Tom Welling, and Kevin Alejandro - Earth-96's Clark Kent looking a lot like Ray Palmer, Earth-167's Clark Kent looking a lot like Earth-666's Cain, and Earth 1's Brother Blood looking a lot like Earth-666's Dan Espinoza.
    • Chad L. Coleman plays Tobias Church on Arrow and Bruno Mannheim on Superman & Lois.

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