” Timeline? This is no time to argue about time. We don’t have the time!… What was I saying?”

Cmdr Deanna Troi – Star Trek: Insurrection
Ezra Miller and Grant Gustin
Movie and TV worlds collide in crossover

Here is the drawback and perk to things like time travel and multiverses. Once you use them, you open a Pandora’s box of possibilities. When abused, it kills your show and its credibility, but when used correctly, opens up gateways to many stories others would call unnatural. Well, such a door was recently opened in the DC Universe. Now DC has just connected its television universe known as the Arrowverse (Arrow was the founding show) and the DCEU thanks to their Crisis on Infinite Earths TV event.

Arrowverse and DCEU Coexist: Two Become One

From day 1 Marvel has made every product apart of their MCU, but it has hampered television shows that have to hold things back until the movie announces it. It appears they have now cancelled all their television shows and instead will place their extra content on Disney’s new streaming service Disney+.

DC went the wiser route and until know kept them separate. Granted DC had issues getting its expanded universe off the ground in theaters. Their shows, especially The Flash, has made use of what is know in the DC universe as the Multiverse. Instead of using time travel, DC uses parallel dimensions where anything is possible. Smart guy character Harrison Wells is reinvented every season as a different version of the character from a different Earth. DC can do anything it wants far cleaner than ‘time travel’ thanks to this plot device.

Crisis on Infinite Earths Joins Arrowverse

In 1985, Crisis on Infinite Earths was a major story line in the DC comics that changed and even rewrote many major characters in the DC universe. The TV side known as the Arrowverse made use of that story this year to fuel its yearly crossover event.

Flash 1 meets Flash 2
Handshake through the universes

In Chapter 4 of this event on Arrow, the Flash entered the Speed Force. To his shock he runs into a different version of himself This ‘other-Flash’ turned out to be Ezra Miller from the DCEU. With a quick exchange they go their separate ways. Why the big deal? This officially links the two worlds together for the first time. While they exist apart, at any time someone from the movies could show up in the Arrowverse, or vise versa.

Arrowverse and DCEU Coexist: Subtle Brilliance

There is a major benefit to this approach. As I said earlier the MCU shows had to go out of their way to keep movie tie in information secret for a week or two after a movie’s release. One could tell when this show had to stretch. For shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. this connection hampered the shows run more than it helped.

With DC both universes can tell their stories however they see fit, but if there is ever a time they wish to cross-promote the two they can simply open the door to the alternate Earth and bring in their guest star/cameo.

The other message this send also tells fans the long plagued DCEU film, The Flash starring Ezra Miller may actually be happening. The film receives a green light, but then the director quits, or the screenpaly starts over. Ezra comes and goes with the variations depending on who is saying what. If Ezra appears on The Flash as his movie self, maybe the latest rumor is true. Perhaps the Flash will meet its latest release date of July 1, 2022. We shall see.