The news that Arrow and The Flash would be crossing over as early as episode 8 in each of their respective seasons this year was met extremely well by fans. However, rather than a two-parter which when viewed together is equivalent to a TV movie, it sounds like a far more self contained experience! "When Felicity is in Episode 4 of The Flash, it will be Wentworth Miller’s first episode as Captain Cold," Andrew Kreisberg revealed in a recent interview with Collider about what exactly it is which brings each of the shows together. "And then, both Episode 8 of Arrow and The Flash will be a two-part cross-over. Not to toot our own horns, but I think we’ve designed it in a way that, if you’re not watching The Flash, you can just enjoy it from the Arrow perspective, where these crazy Flash people show up for an episode, and vice versa. We don’t want to be brazen and assume that everybody is watching both shows. Hopefully, they will be. I think it’s one of those things where, if you’re not watching both shows, whichever show you’re watching, it will all make sense to you. But at the same time, if you are watching both shows, you’re really gonna get a fun, cool two-night event." When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. Though it could be argued that fans will tune into both, that's not necessarily the case for all viewers. Fpr example, what do they do when the DVD and Blu-ray releases hit? Have a "To Be Continued..." episode on one disc and a part tow on the other, forcing people to buy both? It's a tricky situation, but here's hoping it's still a satisfying experience!
Talk then turned to how Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and the planned Justice League movie effects what shows like Arrow and The Flash are able to do on the small screen. Luckily for them, it doesn't sound as if Warner Bros. are planning on utilising a lot of DC Comics' minor characters as it's rare that they're told they can't use someone. "There really aren’t that many characters that we’ve asked to use, that we haven’t gotten access to. Fortunately for us, with Arrow, we were able to bring on Deathstroke and The Huntress, and this year we have Katana. It was actually DC comics’ idea for us to use Ray Palmer/The Atom. On The Flash, with Geoff Johns, our partner, we’ve carved out this whole world of characters that we have access to. There are the big ones that fit into the Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman mythos, but since we’re not using those characters, they’re subsidiary characters don’t really feel necessary to us. We never feel like we’re confined. We’re more impressed that we get to play with as many characters as we do. By the end of this season, on both shows, we’ll have Green Arrow, Black Canary, Katana, The Atom, Firestorm and The Flash. If you’ve got Green Arrow and The Flash, why would you want Batman and Superman around? I think we’ve figured out how to do those characters really well. There’s something very distancing about Superman and Batman that I think works so well in the features, but that I’m not sure would necessarily lend themselves to a weekly series. We’re very happy with the characters that we have."
So, apart from having some restrictions when it comes to using big name characters from The Trinity's adventures, it sounds as if Arrow and The Flash have pretty much a free reign to use who they please. While Warner Bros.' movie plans may not have much of an impact then, it should be very interesting to see whether the studio avoids using Green Arrow or Barry Allen as The Flash in their movies now as a resuly of these shows. What do you guys think?