When the TV version of The Flash comes to an end after this season, it will cap off a period of over a decade where DC Comics’ TV output was largely contained within the so-called “Arrowverse,” which at its height included numerous interconnected TV series, not unlike the multiverses that are now commonplace among the big-screen Marvel and DC movies.
All the shows sprung out of Arrow, which was developed for TV by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg. Guggenheim went on to also work on the Arrowverse spinoff Legends of Tomorrow, but now says that in the wake of the Arrowverse’s impending end and the launch of a new DC Universe headed by James Gunn and Peter Safran, he feels “at least on a career level — that I really wasted my time.”
That’s what he wrote in a recent Substack post, where he talks about the toll that working on the Arrowverse took on him, and particularly the multiple series’ adaptation of the iconic DC crossover book Crisis on Infinite Earths. Guggenheim wrote:
The project, a live action adaptation of a seminal comic book series that made a significant impression on my psyche, was more than a labor of love — it was a labor in every respect and a project where I spent every ounce of capitol I’d amassed in developing DC Comics-related shows for Warner Bros. over an eight-year period. I called in every favor. I used every chit. I burned every bridge. I even spent $10,000 of my own money.
READ MORE: How the DCEU Connects to the Arrowverse
Guggenheim, who also worked on the script for Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern movie, added that working for DC was “creatively fulfilling” but also “involved a lot of adversity, challenges, and personal sacrifices — none of which seem to have accrued to any professional benefit. Simply put, the Arrowverse hasn’t led to any other gigs, so it feels — at least on a career level — that I really wasted my time.”
He also noted that despite his experience he is not part of the new writer’s room Gunn had assembled to plan the DC Universe future, and he “would have liked to have gotten at least a meeting” with Gunn after all his work on the Arrowverse. (“Not a job, mind you. A meeting. A conversation.”)
Gunn hasn’t responded to Guggenheim’s blog post yet, but he might; he does sometimes address this sort of thing on Twitter. Guggenheim’s most recent project was the animated series Wizards: Tales of Arcadia for Netflix.
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