Who Are the Arrowverse Characters Who Are Also Appearing in the Movies

The DC multiverse is a complex place — and with the ever-growing number of TV, film, and web projects based on DC Comics properties, it long ago became inevitable that a number of the characters (particularly the most popular or “important” ones) would be appearing in more than one place at a time. Whether it’s Cyborg showing up in Doom Patrol and Justice League or Ezra Miller‘s Flash literally sharing a moment with Grant Gustin‘s during “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” audiences are getting more and more acclimated to the idea that the version of any given character they are watching is perhaps not the only version that’s out there. Hell, we presently have two Jokers on the big screen!

Taking it to a whole other level is the fact that DC currently has two distinct and at least somewhat popular live-action shared universes taking place right now. Both the Arrowverse — a universe shared by a half-dozen DC Comics TV shows running on The CW — and the DC film universe have no end in sight, and as both of them get bigger and broader, they start using a lot of the same concepts and characters.

We figured it might be fun to take a trip down the road of what superheroes, supervillains, and supporting characters have had significant roles in both the Arrowverse and the DC films (excluding Joker, since it’s not canonical to the DC films — and excluding other worlds of the Arrowverse’s multiverse like Smallville and the Earth-99 where Batman was a crazy jerk. If we used those to fill this out, every character in the DC movies would appear since the DC movies are technically established now to be a world within the multiverse.

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey brought a whole new batch of characters to the big screen who had previously thrived on TV, so it seems like as good a time as any to revisit this list.

So let’s check it out. Let us know if you have a favorite, or if we missed one that sticks out at you (it’s very possible).

Superman

The Man of Steel was the first hero of the DC Universe and, if recent changes to the Arrowverse timeline is to be believed, also the first hero of the Arrowverse. And while he was pre-dated by Wonder Woman by several decades, Superman was also the first hero in the DC movie universe to get his own movie. So of course we’ve got two versions.

Actually, there are more than two if you consider the fact that we know of at least three other Supermen who exist in the Arrowverse — one, who died on Earth-75 during the events of “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” played by Tyler Hoechlin’s stunt double, while Hoechlin plays the main (Earth-Prime) Superman and Brandon Routh tackles the Earth-96 version of the Man of Steel, based largely on the version of the character who appeared in Superman: The Movie and its sequels, including the Routh-fronted Superman Returns.

But it’s Hoechlin who will get his own TV series, starring alongside Bitsie Tulloch’s Lois Lane in Superman and Lois. His slimmer, cheerier Superman stands in contrast to Henry Cavill, who has the weight of the world on his shoulders — and shoulders as broad as a freight train.

Lex Luthor

Jon Cryer, who played Lex’s irritating nephew Lenny Luthor in Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, turned some heads when he came to TV to play Lex himself on Supergirl last season. It turned out to be an inspired choice that rose well above mere legacy casting, and his Lex has become a fan-favorite. Following the events of “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” nobody remembers that he used to be a felon (and dead), and instead everyone thinks he’s always been a hero. Plus, he has somehow managed to privatize the DEO, setting himself up as the chief law enforcer when it comes to all things alien.

That puts him on kind of the opposite trajectory to the version played by Jesse Eisenberg in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, who was a wealthy philanthropist who was eventually outed as a maniac and a murderer. Of course, he too found his way out of prison by the end of Justice League and tried to team up with…

Deathstroke

After years of fans wanting to see him in basically every superhero role, True Blood and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot actor Joe Manganiello landed the role of Deathstroke, intended at the time as the central antagonist in a planned Batman movie to be directed by Ben Affleck as a starring vehicle for himself. When that movie fell apart, it seems Manganiello’s Deathstroke lost his place in the DC movie universe, managing to get onscreen only for a brief post-credits meeting with Luthor.

In the Arrowverse, Lord of the Rings‘s Manu Bennett played Slade Wilson/Deathstroke for all of Arrow‘s fan-favorite second season, and periodically recurred in the role for the rest of the series’ run, with a deleted scene from season two even appearing in the series finale last month.

Lois Lane

Amy Adams, fresh off her time with The Muppets, made her mark on another American institution when she joined Man of Steel in the role of Lois Lane. The actress was a primary focus in Man of Steel and prominently featured in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, setting up a key role in Justice League. With rumors that Henry Cavill’s Superman is through, there’s no clarity yet on whether we’ll ever see that version of Lois onscreen again…

…but Bitsie Tulloch, who debuted as Lois during the “Elseworlds” crossover in 2018, will come to TV in a big way this fall, co-headlining Superman and Lois with Tylher Hoechlin.

The Flash

Not only are there movie and TV versions of this character, but (and this is unique) the pair have actually met. In “Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Four,” after the multiverse was seemingly destroyed, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and the Paragons necessary to defeat the Anti-Monitor at the dawn of time and save the universe all gathered within the Speed Force. Separated by an anti-matter attack, Barry had to find them and bring them together so that he could pull them through the Speed Force and back in time.

During the search, he found…himself. Appearing at STAR Labs, the movie Flash (Ezra Miller) was disoriented, and learned about the multiverse from The CW’s Flash in addition to (possibly?) getting the name “The Flash” from the encounter as well before disappearing as abruptly as he appeared.

Henry Allen, Barry’s dad, also appears in both versions (played by John Wesley Shipp on TV and Billy Crudup in the movies), but since he barely appears in Justice League, we’re going to just make him an addition to Barry’s entry rather than a distinct entry of his own.

Black Canary

Birds of Prey introduced Dinah Lance, and while she’s a very different version of the character than longtime Arrow viewers will be familiar with, Jurnee Smollett-Bell’s tortured lounge singer in the movie certainly has some roots in various versions of the character from the comics, from the DC You-era punk rocker to Frank Miller’s hard-nosed All-Star Batman and Robin version, who also sang at a club full of scumbags and eventually turned on them.

There was a very different verison of Black Canary — or several, actually — on Arrow. Dinah Lance — the mother of Laurel and Sara — appeared and was never Black Canary. Dinah Laurel Lance — colloquially, Laurel — was the second Black Canary. The first was Sara Lance, her sister, who had been invented for the TV series and was presumed dead at the start of the show because she, like Oliver Queen, had gone off on the Queen’s Gambit and gone down in the South China Sea. The last Canary was Dinah Drake, discovered by Team Arrow around the same time the Laurel of Earth-1 died.

Of course, there’s also Black Siren — the Laurel formerly of Earth-2, although the reconfigured multiverse following “Crisis on Infinite Earths” makes that distinction more or less useless.

The Huntress

The Birds of Prey film introduced movie audiences to The Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a damaged daughter of a former mob boss who was on a mission of vengeance, hoping to bring the people who killed her family to justice. On Arrow, the character (here played by Jessica de Gouw) was also on a hunt for vengeance — but the targets were the Berinelli family’s mob cohorts, not their killers.

Harley Quinn

Shortly before the Suicide Squad movie became public knowledge, Arrow had an episode titled “Suicide Squad.” Comprised of a number of characters like Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, and others, this version of Task Force X was led by a version of Amanda Waller and was part of ARGUS. 

In one ARGUS holding cell, though, a nameless inmate was deemed too unstable to use for the Suicide Squad — and with her pigtails and her voice (provided by DC animated Harley Quinn Tara Strong), she was pretty clearly intended to be Harley Quinn.

Of course, we just got Harley’s second big screen appearance from Margot Robbie this past week, following her debut in Suicide Squad.

Amanda Waller

As mentioned previously, Amanda Waller (played on the big screen by Viola Davis and on Arrow by Cynthia Addai-Robinson) heads up the Suicide Squad in both universes — or did, until she was murdered in the Arrowverse, likely becasue somebody at Warner Bros. didn’t want both versions of her coexisting for some reason.

Deadshot

Floyd Lawton, played by Will Smith in the Suicide Squad movie, has a bit more in common with his morally-complicated comic book counterpart — especially the stuff about his daughter — than does the one played by Michael Rowe in Arrow. That character, who debuted in the first season and became one of the first recurring baddies of the show, ultimately met his untimely demise during a Suicide Squad mission.

Katana

Tatsu Yamashiro (Rila Fukushima) was a significant character on Arrow, with both she and her husband appearing in almost every episode of season 3. And while most of the former Suicide Squad members on Arrow were eventually killed off, Tatsu survived and even appeared during the show’s final season, presumably no longer encumbered by expectaitons that she might be an important character in The Suicide Squad. In the movies, Tatsu (Karen Fukuhara) was the Squad’s token “good” metahuman who worked willingly with Waller and Rick Flag.

Captain Boomerang

Captain Boomerang (Nick Tarabay) was one of the first villains that faced The Flash and Arrow as a team during the first-ever crossover between the shows. Later, he would show up as part of a Suicide Squad that was compromised and ordered killed by Lyla Michaels. When his explosive didn’t go off, Boomerang wanted revenge on Lyla for killing his team and trying to kill him. The last time we saw him was on Lian Yu at the end  of Arrow‘s fifth season, where he died alongside several of Talia’s assassin when Malcolm Merlyn set off a landmine to prevent them killing Oliver and Thea.

He remains very much alive in the DC movie universe. Played by Jai Courtney, the character appeared in Suicide Squad (even getting a brief encounter with The Flash there, too), and will next pop up in The Suicide Squad, having been teased a bit in Birds of Prey.

Anatoly Knyazev

Anatoly “KGBeast” Knyazev, a Russian special operative with ties to the Bratva, appeared in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, played by Callan Mulvey (and technically, with “Anatoli” spelled with a comics-accurate I rather than a Y). He was hired by Lex Luthor to stalk and kidnap Martha Kent and Lois Lane to mess with Superman, and died when he threatened Martha with a flamethrower, prompting Batman to blow up the weapon’s tank.

Anatoly (David Nykl) had a bigger and more complicated relationship with Oliver on Arrow, serving as a recurring character for  most of the show’s run, having joined the cast in season 2 (and even being referenced in season one).

General Dru-Zod

While we got to see General Zod quite a bit in Man of Steel (thanks to Michael Shannon’s memorable performance) and even a glimpse of him in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the version seen on Supergirl (played by Mark Gibbon) was only seen in hallucination. 

The character apparently died at some point at Superman’s hands — although whether it was before or after Superman believed that he was seeing him is anybody’s guess. Either way, he apparently was resurrected in the 31st Century and became the Legion’s problem.

Mercy Graves

Played by Tao Okamoto in Batman v Superman, Lex Luthor’s loyal assistant Mercy Graves was among the victims at the U.S. Capitol bombing. Audiences got to know relatively little about her before that, and so she did not make much of an impression on anyone who didn’t already know who she is because of the comics.

She had marginally more to do in Supergirl, where she was played by Rhona Mitra and was a former Cadmus agent and Children of Liberty member. She was eventually murdered by an alien that she and her brother Otis had brainwashed and weaponized.

Odds and ends

You have certain characters who have been referenced but not pictured — Doomsday comes to mind, as he was name-dropped in “Crisis,” and Alfred Pennyworth — so they definitely exist in some form in both universes, but we haven’t actually met them yet. Same goes for the Amazons of Themyscira, and various Kryptonians. The Joker falls into this category, with several overt references to the Clown Prince of Crime in the TV shows but no on-screen presence just yet.

Maxwell Lord appeared in the first season of Supergirl, and will be an antagonits in Wonder Woman 1984, but since he has not technically appeared onscreen yet (and since he could theoretically still turn out to be some evil god pretending to be Max or something), we’ve left him off — just like we left off Jimmy Olsen, who never got name-checked onscreen before being killed in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.