What Today's the CW Renewals Could Mean for the Next Arrowverse Crossover

Arrowverse fans breathed a pretty heavy sigh of relief today as The CW gave new season renewals for Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl.

One of the mainstays of the Arrowverse has become its annual crossover, which occurs around eight episodes in to the shows' seasons. Over the years, these have evolved in some pretty interesting ways, going from what were essentially "special episodes" of Arrow and The Flash to the four-hour movie that was this past year's "Crisis on Earth-X".

Sure, there's still a chunk of the Arrowverse that needs to play out this season, with next week's Legends of Tomorrow season finale, six-or-so episodes of Flash and Arrow, and the remainder of Supergirl's third season. But today's renewals would theoretically bring a few different elements into this fall's event, and it doesn't feel too early to speculate about it.

John Constantine

Yes, Matt Ryan's John Constantine was essentially folded into the Arrowverse a few years ago, following his appearance in Arrow's fourth season. But since then, Constantine has taken a sort of Arrowverse absence, only to reemerge on this season of Legends of Tomorrow.

Constantine's appearances were so well-received, they left fans clamoring for more of the trenchcoat-wearing demonologist -- and they will soon get their wish. After he appears in next week's season finale, the plan is to bring Constantine on as a Legend full-time, something that the Season Four renewal seems to cement.

This means that fans can safely expect Constantine to play some sort of role in the fall crossover, depending on what role the Legends ultimately have in it. Whether that means that Constantine's experience with magic directly plays a role, or fans just get to see him interacting with some of the other shows' characters, is a mystery. But fans will probably be curious to see it either way.

The Flash Milestone

With The Flash's Season Five order, the show will soon be reaching another major benchmark, theoretically right around when the crossover happens. Following the tradition of the past few years, the crossover would continue to take place on the eighth episode of each of the show's seasons, which would fall right on The Flash's 100th episode.

Considering how 2016's "Invasion!" crossover handled Arrow's 100th episode -- advancing the narrative while paying homage to the show's history -- it's safe to assume that The Flash's portion would follow suit in some way.

This is interesting for quite a few reasons, especially since we have no idea what the Arrowverse's narrative landscape will look like at that time. Would the overall plot of the crossover tie into something on The Flash, or would the series take somewhat of a backseat following the circumstances of this year's "Crisis on Earth-X"? If the latter was the case, it would be interesting to see how the Flash portion would balance both of these challenges, and give the show a worthy milestone episode.

Black Lightning?

Black Lightning was also among the shows renewed today -- something that has a small chance of factoring into the crossover.

At the moment, the show is completely unconnected from the Arrowverse, something that many viewers have seen as a sort of narrative freedom. But there are plenty of ways that the series could have a Supergirl-like bearing in the Arrowverse, coming together for the annual crossovers and then going back to its own continuity.

Could this fall's crossover be the thing that brings Black Lightning into the fray? It sounds like it isn't entirely out of the question.

"My preference actually would be to start talking about it sooner rather than later," Arrow and Legends EP Marc Guggenheim told ComicBook.com earlier this year. "Because it really is like doing — I know there's now five shows along with Black Lightning, that's not to say that Black Lightning is a part of the Arrowverse, that's above my pay grade — but I will say whether you consider it four shows or five shows, doing the crossover is like doing a fifth or sixth show. And getting out as far ahead of it as possible is always good."

What do you want to see in the next Arrowverse crossover? Sound off in the comments below.

Legends of Tomorrow finishes its third season next Monday, April 9th, at 8/7c, before Supergirl takes that timeslot on April 16th. The Flash will return with new episodes on Tuesday, April 10th, at 8/7c. Arrow airs new episodes on Thursday at 9/8c.