Arrow's Emily Bett Rickards Wants More Small-Scale Arrow-verse Crossovers

the flash girls night out
(Image credit: Image courtesy of The CW)

Arrow's Season 6 finale ended with Oliver locked up in prison, but he's not the only one stuck in circumstances that are less than ideal. With Oliver in the clink, Felicity will have to step up as William's mother, sole household breadwinner, and leader of what remains of Team Arrow. It's actually a situation not entirely unlike what Iris faced between Seasons 3 and 4 of The Flash, when Barry was stuck in the Speed Force. CinemaBlend's Nick Venable spoke to Emily Bett Rickards at San Diego Comic-Con about how more Arrow-verse crossovers on a smaller scale could be beneficial for Felicity in the next season:

I think if she can call Iris for tips, that would be a really cool thing to do. I think that the two of them should work together more. The fact that we live in separate worlds and pretend they're only one world for one episode of the year is very strange to me. They should call more, and there should be more crossovers that aren't the one crossover.

If anybody has input that could be helpful to Felicity after losing Oliver to prison, it would have to be Iris. While Barry is the Scarlet Speedster and star of The Flash, Iris emerged as leader in the fourth season, and she knows what it's like to love a hero who gets himself into messes on a regular basis. The two ladies are friends, and their relatable circumstances would make it only logical for Felicity to call her up for help. Honestly, I'd be game to see Felicity just calling up Iris to vent. The Arrow-verse may be comprised of many Earths, but there's not so much distance on Earth-1 that shows like Arrow and The Flash can't pull off quickie crossovers every now and then.

The mini crossovers that have happened have certainly been fun. Felicity visited Central City for Iris' bachelorette party (that was unfortunately crashed by Katee Sackhoff's character), and Diggle has dropped by Central City a few times, including a memorable venture to deal with King Shark on behalf of ARGUS. Who can forget the scene in The Flash Season 1 when Oliver took a break from his role as Ra's al Ghul's heir to help Barry and Firestorm battle Reverse Flash? Crossovers don't need to be gigantic extravaganzas dealing with time-traveling villains or Nazis from another Earth. Let's have the super-friends hanging out and chatting from time to time!

Emily Bett Rickards was joined by Arrow costar Echo Kellum in pitching some fun and harmless miniature crossovers for the future Arrow-verse, saying this:

Kellum: Just a crossover full of game night. Everyone's just coming over to play a game and have fun. Just taking those micro aspects of life, right?Rickards: I want to see them eat pizza. A whole hour of people brushing their teeth

I'm not sure that we'll ever get portions of Arrow or Flash episodes featuring game nights or pizza parties without the fun being suddenly interrupted by flying bullets or party-crashing supervillains, but maybe this could be fun fare for a web series. Arrow and The Flash film on some of the same sets (as is evident by the clear similarities between the Star City Jitters and the Central City Jitters); why not pop a character or two over to hang with another team, even if only for a quick video? I would watch that.

Only time will tell. Another big Arrow-verse crossover extravaganza is in the works for December, although it will be missing one of the four Arrow-verse shows. Batwoman will make her debut in the crossover, and we've come up with a big theory (with some help from Stephen Amell) about how she should be introduced. Arrow, The Flash, and the other Arrow-verse shows will return this fall in The CW's shuffled lineup, which you can find here. Our summer TV guide is worth a look as well.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).