DC Entertainment head on separating ‘Supergirl,’ ‘The Flash,’ ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ world from feature films

As a viewer and journalist covering “Arrow,” “The Flash,” and the still-to-come DC’s “Legends of Tomorrow,” one of our major complaints has been the odd way in which DC Entertainment is handling some of their properties. For example, killing off Deadshot, a character prominent on “Arrow,” so that the one in the upcoming “Suicide Squad” movie has more of a platform on his own. Harley Quinn was never allowed to be in anything more than a tiny cameo.

Why do all of this? We understand that maybe you don’t want the movie and TV iterations of the characters to be compared to one another, but at the same time we’re getting Ezra Miller as a big-screen Flash while Grant Gustin kills it on The CW. Why isn’t there consistency?

While at Variety’s own Entertainment and Technology Summit recently, DC Entertainment head Diane Nelson offered up an interesting explanation for not including all properties in the same universe, stating that it “could end up handcuffing our creators into trying to work with the same storyline or force them to hold back characters or introduce certain characters.” She ultimately cited “Gotham” as a property that would be hurt by this.

We’re not advocating for DC to go the way of Marvel here. What we’re wondering is why, if the comic company is making this decision, it is for some reason not allowed to have multiple Deadshots or a TV Harley Quinn. Even getting Constantine onto “Arrow” after the NBC show’s cancellation was a process. We understand the need and want to make sure characters are presented in the best way, but when you’ve got people like Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg involved, shouldn’t you have some confidence?

We’re very interested to see how this complicated situation is handled in “Supergirl,” which hails from Berlanti and Kreisberg (alongside Ali Adler). While it’s not confirmed to be a part of the CW – DC universe, we like to assume that it is given that it is from the same studio in Warner Bros. and has the same producers. The only difference is the network. We know that Superman (played in the movies by Henry Cavill) is not going to be present, but what about mentions of Lex Luthor? Are you ever going to show Lois Lane? These are issues that will need to be tackled?

For now, we’re going to calm down and go back and watch some previews for TV’s “The Flash.” They look awesome.

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