Is The CW Going To Cancel Batwoman And Legends Of Tomorrow?

The CW is known for its mass renewals of shows for high numbers of seasons, including some periods where they simply announce that they’re renewing everything currently on the air for them.

But something is going on with the Arrowverse in particular, the expanding and contracting web of superhero series on the CW. While the current flagship show of the universe, The Flash, was renewed for another season, two other shows, Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman, have been left on the bubble, with the cast and crew unsure if the CW will indeed renew them for an eighth and fourth season respectively.

The CW is in a bit of an odd spot right now as it’s reportedly being mulled over for sale as an entity. This could have something to do with non-auto-renewals for series like these. Alternatively, as more and more DC content comes to HBO Max, it’s possible the idea is to keep pruning down the Arrowverse as a somewhat outdated DC relic in favor of newer shows like the DCEU/The Batman spin-offs we’re seeing there, in addition to old but popular DC Universe shows like Titans and Doom Patrol. However, the renewal of The Flash and the investment in new Arrowverse shows like Gotham Knights may indicate that isn’t the case.

Legends of Tomorrow in particular I would argue deserves to be given a chance to wrap up its storyline, if the plan is to end it sooner or later here. It would be pretty awful to have a show run for seven years and cancel it without any sort of fixed conclusion.

I suppose you could argue the same for Batwoman, even if it’s been around for less time. That show has been through an absolute ringer, being forced to replace its star after season one amid on set drama, but it has cultivated a dedicated network of fans.

I would also note that in this age where Marvel is given a standing ovation every time they even hint at a same-sex relationship in the MCU, both Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman feature LGBTQ characters as their leads, and have had a tremendous amount of overall LGBTQ representation in a way that Marvel and most of the rest of DC have not. While we know Gotham Knights is also planning to have a cast planned around that concept, it would be a shame to lose both of these groundbreaking series so unceremoniously.

The CW increasingly sort of feels like a relic in the streaming era, yet they have simultaneously also been pretty successful with licensing, lending out their enormous catalogue of shows to places like Netflix to fill content gaps and boost interest in their own series when they air live. The Arrowverse has been a huge chunk of that strategy for almost a decade, but the longer time goes on, the less relevant this part of the DC universe seems, despite the fact that is the largest connected comic book universe in history, larger than the MCU in terms of total hours. And again, with some renewals and new shows coming, it’s still not ending, no matter what happens to Legends and Batwoman.

Hopefully we’ll hear something about both shows soon, and they get a chance to end their story on their own terms, if the CW won’t commit to them for multiple years to come.

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