Last year, Barry Allen and Oliver Queen officially entered each other’s respective worlds for their first team-up. While there were some growing pains, each episode of the Flash and Arrow crossover event tailored its content to perfectly suit the tastes of each show’s respective fans. Now it seems their next adventure together will be a little more cohesive than the last.
Arrow star Stephen Amell recently discussed how upcoming crossover between Arrow and The Flash would be a more fully formed adventure than last year’s. Here's how he put it to Speaking with Zap2it.
Last year was designed so that if you were a fan of one show or a fan of the other show, you could enjoy 108 of Flash and 308 of Arrow independent of one another. It’s not the case this year. If you put them back to back on one night, they would run like one two-hour episode of television. In fact, most of the Flash episode takes place in Star City, and most of the Arrow episode takes place in Central City. We have a common villain, which was not the case last year, and just in general, we’ve done an excellent job of weaving not just two shows, but three shows together.
The CW is beginning to find itself more brazen with its willingness to embrace the shared DC universe. Last year’s crossover episodes between The Flash and Arrow were very much standalone stories that centered on the differences between the characters. The focus was placed so much on the development of this dynamic that the episode “Flash Vs. Arrow” did not even show the duo taking down the metahuman they were both chasing. Now, all of the legwork has been done in establishing these heroes as partners, so viewers will likely find themselves more willing to embrace the two coming together. We saw glimpses of this last year – with Oliver coming to Barry’s aid against Harrison Wells at S.T.A.R Labs, and Barry rescuing Team Arrow from the League of Assassins in Nanda Parbat – so now the two series seem ready for a fully-formed integration of each other’s continuities.
It also speaks to the tonal balance that has been achieved in The CW’s DC universe. Much of last season’s team-ups revolved around a clash between Barry and Oliver’s ideologies regarding crime fighting, but so much good and bad has occurred in their respective lives that now the two men will find themselves seeing much more eye to eye than they did last season. With Legends of Tomorrow set to premiere during the two series' midseason hiatus, the lines will only continue to blur even further.
The Flash airs every Tuesday night on The CW, with Arrow airing the following evening. Barry Allen and Oliver Queen will join forces for their crossover episode later this season.
