The CW renews Flash, Batwoman, Legends, Riverdale, and a whole lot more

Arrow may be flying away for good, but the TV spinoff universe it’s spawned is alive and well. The CW just announced it’s ordering all-new seasons for every single one of its ongoing genre shows both inside the Arrowverse and beyond, guaranteeing we’ll be maxing out our DVR boxes for at least another year.

In all, the network is serving up renewal orders for the 2020-2021 season for 13 current series, handing out the early go-aheads to give Batwoman a sophomore second season, alongside veteran Arrowverse shows like The Flash (season 7), Supergirl (Season 6), and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (Season 6). Black Lightning, nudged into the Arrowverse with character crossovers from the recent Crisis on Infinite Earths series, also is coming back for a fourth season.

Riverdale fans also will be pleased (and probably not surprised) to learn that the show is circling back for a fifth season. And Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene, which won’t even premiere its first Season 1 episode until Feb. 6, even got an additional 13-episode script order as part of the big renewal wave — a vote of confidence that the Archie Comics formula is right at home at The CW.

The network also spread the love around the rest of its diverse genre lineup, green-lighting new seasons for Charmed (Season 3), Legacies (Season 3), Roswell, New Mexico (Season 3), and Nancy Drew (Season 2). Along with Batwoman and sports series All American, Nancy Drew forms a trio of freshman shows at the network that already have been waved through for second-season renewals. 

“These early orders for next season give our production teams a head start in plotting out story arcs and a jump on hiring staff, and this also provides us with a strong foundation of established, fan-favorite CW shows to build on for next season,” said network president Mark Pedowitz in a release. “We’ve been thrilled with the creative direction of all three new series, and even though we are in the very early stages of our new full stack streaming strategy, which allows viewers to catch up on our new shows from the beginning, we’re already seeing incredibly positive results from our multiplatform viewership for Nancy Drew and Batwoman.”

The strong endorsement of The CW’s genre lineup comes just as Arrow and Supernatural, two of the network’s biggest and longest-running shows, say their final farewells with the current season. Arrow is set to hit its last bullseye with the Jan. 28 series finale, and Supernatural slips into the great hereafter when its final episode airs on May 18.