The DC fans have always wondered if Batman exists in the Arrowverse universe and the answer is “Absolutely”. He has been referenced so many times in different shows directly and indirectly. In the last season of CW’s Arrow, Oliver Queen name-dropped Bruce Wayne in the press conference. Later, Stephen Amell explains how he got an okay for that from the show-runners:
“That was really funny; the original version of that script, which came out just before Comic-Con, was just Oliver referencing a famous name. I can’t even remember what the placeholder was; I think it might have been Justin Bieber. And I looked at it and thought to myself, ‘This is a cool opportunity.’ I talked to Greg Berlanti about it, and Greg said ‘I think it would behoove you to go straight to Geoff Johns and just simply ask. You’ll probably have better luck than I would.’ So I was at the DC Comics party at Comic Con — Geoff and I were supposed to meet and chat quickly. I couldn’t track him down, but the next thing I knew, I ended up in a four-way conversation with Peter Roth, Diane Nelson, and Kevin Tsujihara all at the same time. I was like, ‘Guys! I have an idea. I think it would be fun, I think it would open the door to a lot of possibilities.”
It’s a well-known fact that Amell is a huge fan of Batman, in fact his dream role on the big screen would be playing Batman villain “Riddler”. He once said during a press tour:
“I always get this question. I think all the superheroes are taken now. I’ll play The Riddler, okay? It’s a villain, but I like The Riddler.”
He further said “The Riddler, I mean that’s an awesome villain, and it hasn’t been in the modern…well, I guess modern, post-turn-of-the-century versions of Batman. So that would be cool.”
He thinks that explicitly mentioning Bruce Wayne opened up a lot of possibilities:
“I’ve always thought that Bruce Wayne would be an interesting ally on the show, and an even more interesting villain to Oliver, which doesn’t mean that he’s the villain, it just means that they don’t like each other. I had this holy trinity of Warner Bros. Television and DC and Warner Bros. overall in front of me, and I pitched this idea, and I’ve got all my follow-up points, and Kevin Tsujihara just goes, ‘Yeah, sure.’ It’s like, ‘Really?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, that sounds fun. Do that.’ So we did it, and I didn’t actually believe that it would make it until I actually saw it in the locked cut.”
But despite many easter-eggs hinted at the existence of Dark Knight, he has never appeared in any of the CW’s superhero shows. Well, according to a new theory, it’s because Bruce Wayne took retirement from his life as a crime-fighting vigilante after Bane beat Batman.
There have been many references to the character of Batman in the different shows. Arrow had actually used Ra’s Ahl Ghul in season 3 who is Batman villain in comics. One of the best easter-eggs was in Arrow when Felicity is given a code name ‘Overwatch’ instead of Oracle as it’s supposedly taken.
In Flash season 2, when Barry goes to Earth-2 to fight Zoom, at his home’s speed-dial there are various names, one of them is Bruce. In Flash season 1, in the 2024 newspaper, there is a news where Wayne Tech was completing a merger with Queen Consolidated.
Further, Geoff John’s Flashpoint comic-book storyline was being adapted for Flash Season 3, where Batman is an integral part in the comic-book version. In the Legends of Tomorrow, Captain Hunter says “I have seen Men of Steel die and Dark Knights fall.” In Supergirl, Kara said:
“My cousin worked with a vigilante once – tons of gadgets, lots of demons.”
There are many ways of actually bringing Dark Knight into the Arrowverse namely Flashpoint 2.0, Nightwing Solo TV show, Gotham-Arrow crossover, Flash newspaper etc. But it can be brought through a crossover event where Batwoman will be featured for the first time. Infact, her solo TV series has been greenlit and Caroline Dries’s (Smallville) has been cast to play the role.
Let’s just hope for the best!
