Marc Guggenheim has been a DC Entertainment staple on television for over a decade as co-creator of The CW’s Arrowverse, which launched in 2012 with “Arrow” (Guggenheim developed the series with Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg) and continued with “The Flash”, “Supergirl” and more. In a blog post from February 2023 which is now circulating online (via Weekly entertainment), Guggenheim lamented not being included in the new DC Universe it’s taking shape at Warner Bros. under DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran.
Guggenheim admitted in his blog post that friends told him Hollywood would come and call him after he pulled off The CW’s ambitious “Crisis on Infinite Earths” storyline. This crossover event, which aired in December 2019 and January 2020, brought together six different superhero series for a story that ran for five hours on television. It was not an easy task, and Guggenheim said he even invested thousands of dollars of his own money to make it happen.
“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,” Guggenheim wrote. “It was a job in every way and a project where I spent every ounce of capital I had amassed developing DC Comics-related shows for Warner Bros. over an eight-year period. Asked every favor. I used every token. I burned every bridge. I even spent $10,000 of my own money.
“After that, my phone actually didn’t ring. ‘Off the hook’ or otherwise,” Guggenheim added. “The fans loved what we did. There were tweets. There were positions. There were memes. There have been a lot of discussions. All that I was – and remain – deeply grateful for. Working on these shows, we always reminded ourselves that the opposite of love wasn’t hate, it was apathy, and no matter what, there was never apathy. Except for, well, Hollywood.
Guggenheim decided to reveal all of this after “James Gunn announced that he had assembled a ‘Writers Room’ to help define what the new ‘DC Universe’ would be like under his and James Safran’s leadership.”
“Suffice it to say, I am not part of this group,” Guggenheim wrote. “I’m not particularly surprised. In fact, I assumed they would assemble some sort of brain trust to help facilitate what I assumed – hoped — would be a vision as ambitious as the DC Universe deserves. But I’ll be honest: I wish I had at least one date.
“Not a job, mind you. An encounter. A conversation. A little acknowledgment of what I had tried to contribute to the great tapestry that is the DC Universe,” he continued. “I had only spent nine years working in this vineyard, after all. (Not to mention many years of co-writing the “Green Lantern” movie, a Green Lantern streaming series, and comic books like “The Flash,” “Batman Confidential,” “Adventures of Superman,” and “Justice Society. of America”.)”
Guggenheim summed up his frustration by writing, “Put simply, the Arrowverse hasn’t led to any other gigs, so I feel like – at least career-wise – I’ve really wasted my time. ”
“Arrow” wrapped up its eight-season run in 2020, while “The Flash” is coming to an end this year after running for nine seasons. The series finale of “The Flash” in May 2023 will effectively serve as the end of the Arrowverse, although The CW’s Arrowverse-adjacent series “Superman & Lois” continue to for “one or two more seasons”.