Which Earth Is Supergirl from in the CW Show?
At the time of this writing, we’re less than a week away from the upcoming DCEU movie ‘The Flash,’ which will introduce the newest live-action Supergirl, played by Sasha Calle. Calle’s Supergirl will debut 39 years after Helen Slater played the character in the original ‘Supergirl’ movie and two years after the ‘Supergirl’ TV series starring Melissa Benoist concluded on The CW after a six-season run. The TV show was officially set in The CW’s universe known as ‘Arrowverse,’ and in this article, we’ll tell you from what Earth Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl is from.
While the main Arrowverse shows like ‘Arrow’ and ‘The Flash’ were set on Earth-1 initially, the events of the ‘Supergirl’ series were happening on Earth-38. After four and a half seasons on Earth-38, the ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ crossover event created a new universe that merged multiple Earths from the original universe into one Earth known as Earth-Prime, where all the events from all Arrowverse TV shows, including ‘Supergirl,’ took place until the eventual ending of ‘Supergirl’ in November 2021 and the entire Arrowverse with the ending of ‘The Flash’ in May 2023.
Even though we can agree that the quality of Arrowverse shows was dropping as the franchise was progressing, no one can deny that Arrowverse did something extraordinary in the history of TV programming. During eleven years of its existence, Arrowverse spawned six live-action TV shows (excluding ‘Superman & Lois,’ which distanced itself from the rest of the Arrowverse in its second season), two animated web series, and several comic books.
How did Supergirl become a part of the Arrowverse?
The ‘Arrow’ TV show debuted on The CW in the Fall of 2012, and when it premiered, probably no one thought it would eventually create a shared universe of interconnected TV shows. Well, no one thought back in 2008 that ‘Iron Man’ would lead to the creation of the entire MCU, but here we are. While the first season of ‘Arrow’ was pretty much its own thing, the second season introduced Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen, which eventually led to the creation of the first spin-off series ‘The Flash‘ in 2014. And that’s how Arrowverse was born.
One year after ‘The Flash‘ premiered on The CW, the ‘Supergirl’ TV show premiered on CBS in October 2015, starring Melissa Benoist in the titular role. While the series started independently, Grant Gustin appeared in the first season’s 18th episode, titled “World’s Finest.” The episode explained how ‘Supergirl’ is in the same Multiverse as ‘The Flash.’ Barry Allen accidentally found himself there due to his powers allowing him to travel between parallel universes. After the first season, ‘Supergirl’ was moved to another network, The CW, where it remained for the rest of its run.
When the series moved to The CW, it fully became part of the Arrowverse, although it was still set on different Earth. Supergirl guest-starred in the ‘Invasion!’ crossover event, although the event was made from the episodes of ‘Arrow,‘ ‘The Flash,’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow,’ but not ‘Supergirl.’ Benoist guest-starred in the 17th episode of the third season of ‘The Flash,’ which is known as the mini-crossover called ‘Duet.’
In November 2017, The CW aired the first four-episode crossover event — ‘Crisis on Earth-X’ — which consisted of the episodes of ‘Supergirl,’ ‘Arrow,’ ‘The Flash,’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow.’ The next annual crossover ‘Elseworlds’ aired one year later, and it set up the stage for the biggest Arrowverse crossover ever; a five-episode event called ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths,’ which assembled all the heroes from the Multiverse in a fight against the Anti-Monitor.
During the ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths,’ Anti-Monitor managed to destroy the Multiverse, and the last few heroes, including Supergirl, were sent to the Vanishing Point outside of space and time to plan their next step. There they are met by Oliver Queen, who becomes the Spectre. In a showdown against Anti-Monitor, Oliver creates a new universe before he dies. While this new universe seems like the previous one, Supergirl, and The Flash soon realize that their Earths were merged into one Earth, Earth-Prime.
What the future holds for the character of Supergirl in live-action?
Melissa Benoist spent six years of her career playing Supergirl, and even though the series was criticized for its writing in later seasons and poor visual effects, her performance was praised. The last episode of ‘Supergirl’ aired on November 9, 2021, with Kara Danvers revealing her secret identity to the world. And while Benoist hung up the Supergirl cape for good, the fans do not need to worry about seeing the Girl of Steel in live-action in the future.
In February 2021, Sasha Calle was officially cast as Supergirl in ‘The Flash’ movie directed by Andy Muschietti. At the time of this writing, the movie is less than a week away, but it’s unknown if Calle will continue to play the character in the upcoming movie ‘Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,’ which is currently in early development. That is because Calle plays DCEU Supergirl, and it’s unknown if James Gunn plans to keep her in the upcoming cinematic universe called DCU. Calle already expressed her interest in reprising the role, but it remains to be seen if she’s also going to be DCU Supergirl.
‘The Flash’ movie, in which Sasha Calle will debut as Supergirl, will hit theaters worldwide on June 16, 2023.
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