10 Best Arrowverse Easter Eggs and References of 2017

The year is winding down, meaning it’s time for fans to look back at the pop culture that made their 2017 what it was.

For fans of The CW’s Arrowverse of shows, that meant 23 weeks of plot twists, new superpowers… and plenty of Easter eggs. Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow are no stranger to sly references and Easter eggs, and they certainly provided plenty for audiences to mull over this year.

But in the long run, there are quite a few that go beyond a subtle Easter egg. Some provide a perfect callback to the media that have come before them, while others hint at DC Comics things that could completely change the Arrowverse as fans know it.

So, without further ado, here are our ten favorite Arrowverse Easter eggs and references from 2017.

Bruce Wayne (Arrow)

Alright, let’s get the biggest (and perhaps most talked-about) one out of the way.

In the second episode of Arrow‘s sixth season, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) was confronted with a new piece of photographic evidence hinting at him being the Green Arrow. Oliver was accosted by the press, and his defense was that photos can be doctored – and that for that matter, Bruce Wayne’s head could have been put on the Green Arrow’s body.

This reference dominated the pop culture conversation for a solid day, with plenty of speculation as to whether or not Batman would finally be coming to the Arrowverse. As of right now, the name-drop hasn’t really amounted to anything aside from a pretty perfect clapback from Gotham. Still, after the long list of references that the Arrowverse has made to DC’s Dark Knight, this at least confirms that Bruce Wayne is out there.

Themyscira (Legends of Tomorrow)

Another Arrowverse-expanding Easter egg came a few weeks later in the fan-favorite Legends of Tomorrow episode “Helen Hunt”.

The episode saw the team attempting to rescue Helen of Troy (Bar Paly), who had been displaced to the golden age of Hollywood. After literally starting a war between two film studios, Helen expressed how much she dislikes having men fight over her, and just wants a way to escape that and be more empowered like the female members of the Legends.

Zari Tomaz (Tala Ashe) took that desire to heart, “hacking time” to drop Helen off on an island full of warrior women. Even before the location card came up onscreen, fans knew what this meant: Legends was introducing us to the Arrowverse’s version of Themyscira.

While there’s no telling how this will manifest in the Arrowverse — seeing as Wonder Woman is a major selling point for the DC Extended Universe, and Donna Troy could be headed to the unconnected Titans series — it at least proves that Wonder Woman’s roots exist within it.

Babel Protocol (The Flash)

Admittedly, this one doesn’t impact the overall Arrowverse as much – but it still raised a hell of a lot of questions.

The same week as Arrow‘s Bruce Wayne name-drop, The Flash debuted a new super suit for Barry Allen/The Flash (Grant Gustin). Among the almost comical list of features was something called “Babel Protocol”, a term that plays a weird role in the Justice League of America comics.

In 2000’s “Tower of Babel” storyline, Batman kept an index of records about his teammates, including the various ways to neutralize them in a fight. This “Babel Protocol” ultimately got into the hands of Ra’s al Ghul, who caused a hell of a lot of trouble with it.

Ultimately, The Flash‘s “Babel Protocol” served a pretty simple purpose, as a sort of fail-safe in case Barry showed evil tendencies after his time in the Speed Force. Still, it was the kind of perfectly subtle Easter egg to make fans go crazy with speculation.

Barry Allen’s Return (The Flash)

On a related note, Barry’s return from the Speed Force gave us a lot to process. (So much so that even his beard was an Easter egg.)

When Barry came back in the season four premiere, it was clear he’d been through some timey-wimey nonsense while in the Speed Force. Barry began spouting gibberish that ranged from the endlessly amusing “This house is bitchin’” to some pretty major Easter eggs.

Barry recited quite a few lines from his first year as the Scarlet Speedster, including direct references to conversations he had with both Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) and Oliver. This proved as to be a sort of precursor to the tie between Barry and Clifford DeVoe/The Thinker (Neil Sandilands), who played a surprising role in the events of the pilot.

In addition to calling back to the past, Barry’s nonsense also seemed to hint at the future. For one thing, Barry’s proclamation that he was innocent and didn’t murder anyone ended up being a pretty shocking connection to the upcoming “Trial of the Flash” storyline. And Barry’s comment about “needing more diapers” seemed to hint at something else in the future too – the arrival of the Tornado Twins.

Titanic (Legends of Tomorrow)

This reference doesn’t necessarily homage the world of DC Comics, but it’s still pretty wonderful.

Early on in Legends of Tomorrow‘s third season, the team tried to determine which anachronism to visit first. Someone suggested that they help solve a problem on the Titanic, which sparked a pretty passionate response from Martin Stein/Firestorm (Victor Garber).

“I refuse to set foot on the Titanic,” an agitated Stein declares. “Whoever built that ship should be shot.”

For those familiar with the iconic 1997 film, this line has quite a few layers of amusement. In a way, Stein is essentially referring to himself, as Garber played Thomas Andrews, the man who designed the titular ship. “Freakshow” was also a pretty perfect episode to place it in, seeing as it featured an appearance from Titanic co-star Billy Zane as P.T. Barnum.

And as Legends‘ third season has gone on, that Titanic line has taken a whole new level of (macabre) irony. As Legends fans have been trying to forget, Stein perished in this year’s “Crisis on Earth-X” crossover. While he ultimately died in a sort of poison-related self sacrifice, his death was initially brought on by (you guessed it) being shot.

Flying Graysons (Legends of Tomorrow)

In the same episode as the Titanic nod, Legends included a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to something major in the DC Comics world.

The Legends begin canvassing P.T. Barnum’s circus, attempting to discover exactly what the anachronism is that brought them there. In the background was a series of circus performers – including ones that definitely seemed to resemble the Flying Graysons, the acrobat troupe that Dick Grayson/Nightwing hails from.

Again, this probably won’t manifest too much in the Arrowverse, seeing as Dick Grayson’s backstory will be explored in Titans. Still, it’s the perfect kind of nod, and could hint at just how broken Legends‘ version of the DC Comics timeline has become.

Chloe Sullivan (Supergirl)

Another tie to the DC Comics world – albeit one that fans definitely weren’t expecting – came up in Supergirl‘s third season.

Kara Danvers/Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and Alex Danvers’ (Chyler Leigh) adolescence was explored in the flashback episode “Midvale”, which saw the pair overcoming their differences to help solve a friend’s murder. They uncovered a laptop computer filled with their friend’s information, but had no way to access it. Thankfully, Kara mentioned that her cousin had “a friend named Chloe” whose “Wall of Weird” could help them out.

This served as a pretty major Easter egg for fans of the Super-family’s lore as it directly references Smallville‘s Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack). Chloe was created specifically for the world of Smallville before briefly making a foray into the comics. But these multiple references to her on Supergirl prove that a version of Chloe can be found throughout DC’s multiverse, and raises plenty of questions about her and Clark Kent/Superman’s (Tyler Hoechlin) history together.

Konstantin Kovar’s Death (Arrow)

In the grand scheme of things, this Easter egg is pretty minuscule. But either way, we found it to be pretty clever.

Arrow‘s shocking Season Five finale was filled with plenty of death as Oliver and Adrian Chase/Prometheus (Josh Segurra) took their fight to Lian Yu. Early on in the episode, Oliver and his team were shown exploring the island, when they stepped over a skeleton wearing a black leather jacket.

As it turns out, this skeleton was none other than Konstantin Kovar (Dolph Lundgren), a Bratva villain who Oliver had been fighting throughout the Season Five flashbacks. This skeleton ended up foretelling what would happen twenty-or-so minutes later, when Kovar was ultimately killed by Oliver.

Superman 2 (Supergirl)

“Crisis on Earth-X” gave fans more twists and turns than they probably knew what to do with. But one of the best was a simple line of dialogue delivered in the crossover’s final portion.

In it, Kara confronted her evil Earth-X doppelganger, flying up to the evil version of the Waverider and asking, “General, would you care to step outside?”

The nod is a reference to Superman 2, and in particular the altercation between the title character (played by Christopher Reeve) and General Zod (Terence Stamp). The fight has some of the most iconic lines in all of superhero media, and the way it seamlessly worked into the Arrowverse is pretty great.

Raiders of the Lost Art (Legends of Tomorrow)

And finally, no pop culture homage or DC Comics Easter egg quite stacks up to Legends‘ Season Two midseason premiere, “Raiders of the Lost Art.”

The episode saw the Legends and the Legion of Doom traveling to 1970s Los Angeles, where Rip had been time-displaced as a Hollywood director. As they soon discovered, Rip was working alongside a familiar face: a young George Lucas (Matt Angel). If George ended up being kidnapped by the Legion of Doom, he would end up giving up filmmaking altogether, and Star Wars’ effect on the world would completely disappear.

What unfolded was a sort of love letter to the Star Wars franchise, complete with laser guns, a trash compactor escape, and way too many Easter eggs to mention here. Along the way, it showed audiences just how much of an impact Star Wars has had on our culture, and how many people it has inspired along the way.