With a combined sixteen seasons across all four shows, there’s been a ton of stories the Arrowverse has pulled off. The universe that includes the shows Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow has churned out more superhero tales than most media.
There’s been adaptations of classic comic book stories like "Flashpoint" and completely new tales like “Crisis on Earth-X.” The Arrowverse isn’t perfect but it’s harder to find a large quality of superhero stories consistent quality, outside the comics.
As many stories as the Arrowverse has told to completion, they’ve also let some plot threads hang. The reasons for these abandoned plotlines spread throughout the Arrowverse vary.
Sometimes an actor’s availability became incredibly limited or disappeared altogether. Other times a tease or Easter egg existed but went nowhere. Even in a few cases the stories were abandoned for all the right reasons as they just didn't work in one or another.
Despite the reasoning there still exists a story graveyard in the Arrowverse’s wake. Regardless if it was the right decision to end the story or not, and usually it was, there’s so many dangling questions that will never get answered. We’ve collected some of the best (or worst) of these forgotten stories.
Here are the 15 Arrowverse Plotlines That Were Completely Abandoned!
Wildcat and Laurel's Connection
In his entirety, Wildcat is a totally forgotten plot for Arrow. Ted Grant should’ve been a huge character for the series. He’s a recognizable figure from the comics. More importantly, in the Arrowverse, it was established he predates Oliver as a vigilante and he was training Laurel.
Yet Ted is another character whose final unceremonious episode was “Uprising”. After getting beat up by Brick, Wildcat was never seen again on the show.
Though explained by behind-the-scenes reasons, actor J.R. Ramirez got another job, it was never explained on Arrow. The connection between Laurel and himself, which seemed romantic, remains a huge dangling plot thread on Arrow.
Nyssa al Ghul took over Laurel’s training and Wildcat was forgotten. He didn’t even bother showing up for Laurel’s very public funeral.
Everything About The Huntress
Arrow did bring a little bit of closure to their version of Huntress. In her last Arrow episode, Helena was imprisoned for her crimes and she promised to redeem herself.
Since prisons hold characters in the world of superheroes as much as death lasts, Huntress should’ve been out a long time ago. Nevertheless, Arrow has completely abandoned Huntress to rot in prison which is just bizarre.
Jessica De Gow’s career hasn’t exactly been on fire since her appearances on Arrow. There seems to be no good reason why Huntress has disappeared. Other than the obvious one; the show just doesn’t want to use her.
Huntress did, thankfully, return in the Arrow season 2.5 comics. Helena was released from jail to work with Oliver on one last mission. Sadly, none of that very cool story idea made it into the show proper.
Solomon Grundy Died on a Wednesday
It’s strange to call a seriously dead villain an “abandoned plotline” but that is the case for Arrow’s Cyrus Gold. Cyrus Gold’s proper story only really begins once he’s dead. Gold isn’t exactly a well-known comic book name but his undead persona, Solomon Grundy, is rather infamous.
When Cyrus Gold was introduced in Arrow season 2, it seemed like the show was starting a journey to take Gold to the place of Solomon Grundy. It’s all there in Gold's death scene as he’s killed by mysterious chemicals (which almost always kickstart some kind superpower weirdness). Yet Gold has yet to return to Arrow as Solomon Grundy or otherwise.
It’s perhaps not the worst decision. Arrow probably didn’t need Oliver to fight an immortal zombie over and over. Still, that doesn’t make it any less bizarre that Cyrus Gold was introduced, killed off and stayed dead.
Bizarro's Been Put on Ice
In the jump from season 1 to season 2, Supergirl became a much better show. However, the increase in quality (and switch for networks) seemingly caused a lot of stories to be abandoned. Some of which were oddly promising for the uneven first season. One such story is that of the villain Bizarro.
Supergirl has always had a real villain problem, struggling to find foes that are both powerful and interesting. Bizarro managed to be both and effectively tragic to boot.
Bizarro’s first (and only) episode ended with the character being put in a coma. Kara promised that they would try to help Bizarro and reverse the horrible condition imposed her by Maxwell Lord.
Yet since that episode there’s not been a mention of Bizarro, or seemingly an effort to help her. So much for Kara keeping her promise.
Sara's Adoptive Little Sister Sin
Arrow’s hands are sort of tied with this one. The actress who played Sin, Bex Taylor-Klaus, got several jobs after her minor appearances on Arrow.
The show obviously couldn’t use her as much as they wanted and in addition, Sara was killed off (and later brought back to join another series). Still, Sin was an incredibly important if small character in Arrow seasons 2 and 3, who Sara loved and protected. Sin was even very close with Thea and Roy.
However, the character has completely disappeared from the show without a trace. Sin’s last appearance was in “Uprising” where she told Quentin Lance that his daughter was dead (again).
Evidently Arrow fans are just supposed to believe that Sin is out on the streets fending for herself. That’s strange for a number of reasons but mainly because Sin would’ve been a perfect new member for Team Arrow during season 5.
Savitar's Plans for Jesse Quick
It is a little unclear when The Flash settled on a time remnant of Barry Allen being Savitar’s secret identity. Yet watching back the entire Flash season 3 arc, it doesn't seem like Savitar was planned out from the start.
One of the biggest hints is that when Savitar first encounters Jesse Quick, he doesn’t murder her. Savitar explains that he has big plans for Jesse and that he needs to her live.
This never came up again in The Flash season 3. It also likely never will because Savitar has been erased from the timeline. If The Flash truly had plans to have Savitar torture Jesse Quick, fans will certainly never see them.
It’s possible that availability to the actress is to blame for Savitar’s schemes being dropped. It’s already why Jesse was written out of the series and broke up with Wally West in season 4.
General Eiling Knows Barry's Secret Identity
Putting veteran TV actor Clancy Brown as General Eiling was inspired casting by The Flash. Eiling was a rather shallow character but Brown imbued him with a real level of threat and menace. More than just a performance, Eiling was put in uniquely powerful position. He learned Barry Allen’s identity as The Flash at the end of his first episode.
Despite subsequent appearances by Eiling, this knowledge hasn’t amounted to anything. A high ranking military official with very questionable morality knows the name of one of Earth-1’s most powerful metahumans. Somehow, he’s done nothing with that information.
Looking as The Flash as a TV show, Eiling keeping the secret makes sense. He was a very minor character in season 1. Looking at it logically, Barry should’ve been exposed worldwide for years.
Blackout's Blood Sample
The Reverse Flash’s plans for Barry in The Flash season 1 was a brilliant and tightly constructed arc. This makes the one minor ball that was dropped even more noticeable.
One of Barry’s earliest and most threatening metas was Blackout. Blackout wouldn’t be a serious obstacle for every powerful hero in the Arrowverse. For Barry though Blackout was particularly formidable as he could siphon electricity out of The Flash. In his debut episode though Blackout accidentally ended up killing himself.
Yet in the episode’s final moments Eobard Thawne approaches Blackout’s body. He takes a sample of his blood, stating out loud (in his supervillain way) that it’ll be useful.It never comes up again. Reverse Flash, weirdly, never uses the blood sample or even hints at having it. It’s something that definitely would’ve come in handy too.
Pied Piper's Sudden Redemption
Most of Barry’s time-traveling adventures have been unmitigated disasters. If Barry goes through time on The Flash something terrible is going to happen. In one rare instance though Barry improved the timeline.
When Barry revisited a season 1 adventure in season 2 during the episode “Flash Back”, he managed to mess with the enough that someone’s morality entirely shifted.
Pied Piper AKA Hartley Rathaway turned from a whiny villain to an ally of Team Flash. It was a surprising moment with huge implications … that hasn’t been touched. “Flash Back” was Hartley’s last appearance on The Flash, with no hints that the character is coming back any time soon.
How Barry shifted Hartley’s moral alignment and why that impacts The Flash will be left as a mystery. Especially since actor Andy Mientus seems more interested being on stage, not the screen.
Maxwell Lord's Possible Doomsday Device
By dropping everything Maxwell Lord in season 2, Supergirl absolutely made the right decision. Peter Facinelli did his creepy best but he never seemed like more than a knock-off Lex Luthor. Supergirl is better off without Lord. Still there’s a huge plot hole concerning him.
In the Supergirl season 1 finale, Maxwell Lord was given the powerful but ridiculously named, Omegahedron, by General Lane. The agreement between the two characters is that Lord would use the Omegahedron to prevent further alien threats, the implication being that he'd attack Supergirl.
However, the season 1 finale is the last fans have seen of either Lane or Lord. Maxwell Lord didn’t even step in when the Daxamites invaded at the end of season 2.
It’s not a problem, at all, because Supergirl doesn’t need Maxwell Lord. It is, however, a little weird from a continuity standpoint.
The Neglectful Stepfather, Walter Steele
Like all superheroes, Oliver and Thea Queen have a problem with their parental figures staying alive. At this point, all of Thea and Oliver’s biological parents are dead. The most tragic loss for the Queen Family might be from the one parental figure that’s still living, their stepfather Walter Steele.
Walter and Moira did get divorced before his final appearance in Arrow season 2. Yet besides appearing at Moira’s funeral and promising to do whatever he can for Thea, Walter has been utterly absent in the lives of the Queen children. The actor moved on to other projects, but it just makes Walter a big neglectful stepfather, especially for Thea.
In the Arrow Season 2.5 comics Walter did make a slight reappearance helping Oliver with his messy finances, situation that only got worse after Moira’s death. However in the show, despite the increasing craziness of Oliver's life in show, he’s completely disappeared.
The Return of the Rogues
The Arrowverse has done a lot with Captain Cold and Heat Wave. Most of it, especially the material on Legends of Tomorrow, has been great.
Still, on The Flash during seasons 1 and 2, it was heavily implied that Cold would be getting a group of villains together, called The Rogues, to battle Barry. These plans never materialized and not just because Cold moved to the spin-off.
The concept of The Rogues existed long after Cold’s time-traveling adventures. It seemed like Cold’s sister, Lisa, might take up the mantle but her actress Peyton Reed has been cast in several different series.
Mirror Master and The Top seemed like a Rogue revival in season 4 but they turned out to be very unpopular with fans and were subsequently dropped.
The Rogues are some of Barry’s greatest foes in the comics. On the show, it’s been a series of false starts.
Supergirl's Big Love Triangle Between Winn, James, and Kara
Of any of the forgotten Arrowverse plotlines, this one is among the most wisely abandoned. Early on in Supergirl, the show hit the idea of Kara being stuck in a love triangle with her best friend, Winn, and her hunky co-worker, James Olsen, hard.
It was super cliche and misguided. Neither potential couple had any romantic chemistry, especially Winn and Kara. The love triangle felt forced from the start and it never found much traction with fans.
So, when Supergirl season 2 hit, Kara’s feelings for both guys just evaporated. Kara broke with James almost immediately in the season 2 premiere after pining after him all season. Meanwhile, Winn’s feelings for Kara have never been brought up again.
It’s a welcome reversal but that’s exactly how feelings work. This is especially true for Winn who seemed to have an unrequited crush for years.
The Suicide Squad
Among certain fans there’s few aborted stories in the Arrowverse more upsetting than the Suicide Squad. Arrow slowly started to build towards a televised Suicide Squad, years before the movie’s release, in season 2.
In season 3 the Suicide Squad finally started to form and then just as quickly was abandoned. Amanda Waller and Deadshot, two key members of the story line were killed off. Though the story could’ve continued without the pair it was never brought up again.
The reasons were completely out of Arrow’s control. An edict came down from DC and Warner Bros. that the Suicide Squad was off limits. This was because the David Ayer movie was going into production and the higher-ups didn’t want “confusion” or “competition.”
It’s reasoning that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but it’s the cause for one of the Arrowverse’s more obvious abandoned plotlines.
Thea Being in Love with Her (Biological) Brother
Not since Star Was has there been an aborted romantic plotline been more retroactively disturbing than the one between Thea and Tommy on Arrow.
Throughout Arrow season 1 it was obvious that Thea had a huge crush on Tommy, even attempting to kiss him at one point to profess her love. It came off as an innocent attraction ... until season 2 where it was revealed that Tommy and Thea were related, sharing the same father.
Granted once Thea found out about her real dead, Tommy was long dead. Still Arrow has taken great pains to ignore Thea’s previous attraction to her (secret) brother.
Any time Tommy is mentioned on Arrow, which is frequently, it’s either as Malcolm Merlyn’s son or Thea’s brother. There’s never even been a hint of Thea’s non-platonic love for her big brother.
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Do you know of any other abandoned Arrowverse plots? Which story would you like to see resurrected? Sound off in the comments below!