Superhero TV Maven Greg Berlanti Says Arrow Has As Much Hope and Optimism As Other DC Shows

Among DC's superhero TV series on The CW, Arrow has a not-entirely-unearned reputation as the "dark," "angry" one -- but executive producer Greg Berlanti, who also oversees The Flash, Supergirl, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow on the network, says that fans and critics sometimes make that generalization too broadly.

Inspired by filmmaker Christopher Nolan's acclaimed Dark Knight Trilogy, which reinvented the cinematic Batman as a kind of urban samurai, Arrow has never shied away from gritty violence, consequences, and other storytelling tools that often feel out of place in the technicolor world of many superhero adaptations.

And while the show created a template for successful post-Smallville comics adaptations on television that has been imitated by DC and abroad, the grit and gloom of Arrow are sometimes cited as a reason it doesn't have the same kind of phenomenal mainstream ratings success that The Flash does.

Berlanti disagrees.

"In some ways, there can be some episodes of Arrow that can be just as optimistic in their own way, especially given the perils that they're up against," Berlanti told ComicBook.com during a recent event celebrating the hundredth episode of Arrow. "It's definitely a darker-toned show in a lot of regards, but it's always the relationships and those are just as emotional and deep and fun."

Berlanti further said that making sure the worlds of the shows gel -- particularly when it comes time for things like December's four-show crossover -- is one of the most fun, but "also probably one of the most challenging parts" of the process.

He added, "I remember in the pilot to The Flash, Arrow being in the scene and thinking, 'Is this going ot make both shows feel smaller or bigger?' And sort of like the comic books, it made them both feel a little bigger."

And when the always-brooding Oliver Queen broke into a smile and moved light on his feet in the pilot for The Flash, Berlanti says all of the credit goes to Arrow's own Stephen Amell.

"He played it that way. That was his own brilliance," Berlanti said.

Arrow airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.