Warner Bros. never quite figured out the whole "shared universe" thing, with the DCEU, Arrowverse, and various other TV shows (Titans and Gotham, for example), all standing separate from one another.
Arguably the most successful of all those realities was The CW's. Starting with Arrow, the "Arrowverse" rapidly expanded to encompass several small screen franchises, including The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and eventually even Supergirl.
Crossovers took place far more frequently than in the DCEU, with Crisis on Infinite Earths becoming one of the Arrowverse's greatest successes.
Greg Berlanti was the one who helped start it all and remains a creative force in the background of those TV shows. He's since moved on and, in an interview with Deadline, confirmed he's ready to see what DC Studios comes up with when James Gunn and Peter Safran launch the DCU.
"It was a moment in time for me, and one plan, the size and the scope of which we were altogether able to achieve," Berlanti explained. "The closeness that I had with many of the actors, and still have, and other writers and directors and the family that we built over that time. And the opportunity where every year we were doing these big crossover episodes and all the different showrunners would come in from all the different shows."
"To create in that way was such a joy and incredibly challenging. But it is nothing I would try and replicate again at this moment. That felt very singular. I love Warner Bros. I wish them all the best with these amazing characters. We had a credo that I would say to everybody all the time, which is, we're so lucky to have these characters."
"Let's return them to the shelf more valuable than when we took them off. It was very much about that, and trying to build a world and a place where everybody who loved them as much as we did could come and tell stories. Now I think it's time for new; the torch has been passed beautifully, and I'm really excited by all they're doing there now."
DC Studios plans to create a DCU encompassing film, television, animation, and video games. Even if the Arrowverse hadn't ended with The Flash last year, there's a very good chance we'd have been saying goodbye to it now to pave the way for those plans.
In terms of the characters who inhabited the Arrowverse, Gunn has plans for Superman and Supergirl; beyond that, we don't know what's in store for the likes of Green Arrow and Batwoman!
As always, stay tuned for updates as we have them.