In the ramp up to Man of Steel, much of the hype has been focused on how much of a role the film will have to play on kickstarting the inevitable shared cinematic DC Universe. While WB president Jeff Robinov has confirmed this will indeed be the case in a recent interview , it seems to me that no matter how you slice it, the studio is going to be playing catch-up to Marvel at this point.

Loading

Loading

Loading

There’s nothing wrong with that – franchises are a long form game, anyway – but WB can make up a lot of lost ground and even get ahead of the curve in some respects with one simple connection. Man of Steel’s Metropolis and Arrow’s Starling City should occupy the same universe.There are some storytelling hang ups, of course. Superpowers don't yet exist in Arrow -- so their inclusion would be a big deal -- but you’d think Oliver Queen would reference a being like Superman pretty much right away (assuming, were this to happen, Man of Steel would be set before the events of Arrow, with Superman appearing before Ollie was off the island). That could feasibly be written off with a “I was wondering when he’d show up” line when Superman is spotted in Starling City, and the rest of the gang pretends that having powers was no big deal in the first place.But there is a precedent to pairing the two characters, beyond the happenstance of their new projects at the forefront of superhero pop culture. Lest we forget, Clark Kent and Oliver Queen had a hell of a showing together for many years on Smallville. Why not carry that partnership over into a new continuity and further embed it within the fabric of these characters?As far as how it would work, in Arrow, Oliver is kind of prone to wasting dudes – very much not Superman’s philosophy – so perhaps Kal-El pays him a visit, telling him that if he wants to be a part of the team he’s putting together, he’s going to have to change his methods. All at the same time, this builds the Justice League cast while also addressing some character concerns for Oliver in Arrow.Wishful thinking, I’m sure, but technically, it's possible legally/contractually. Still, other than the pure fan excitement that would come from this happening, it would give WB an opportunity to make up for lost time to some degree. While Marvel’s reach is still untouchable in terms of the number of viable franchises, through connecting Man of Steel and Arrow, WB would have at least gained equal ground with Marvel in terms of the expanding their unified brand onto television.In fact, it would make them unique – Arrow is already a huge hit for the CW with an ever-expanding cast of characters from the comics; any connection to a larger universe beyond Starling City can only be a boon.Conveniently, the visual tone of both Arrow and Man of Steel are nearly identical already. The darker color palettes complement one another and they both take on the trend of “superheroes in our real world” that Batman Begins started. The show has already brought in some larger elements of the DC Universe as well, beyond just characters – like the mention of the mystical city of Nanda Parbat Warner Brothers appears to have enacted a similar rule that plagued Smallville – not allowing any major DC players like Batman or Wonder Woman to appear on the show or for cities like Metropolis (not an issue for Smallville, obviously) or Gotham be seen – but perhaps this time around, that could simply be to avoid multiple versions of characters that are meant to share the same universe.This is all a long shot, of course, but there is already a clear path to connectivity laid at the feet of Warner Brothers. I wouldn’t fault them for wanting to start from the ground up and build a cinematic universe in a fashion similar to Marvel, but at the same time, if they ignore the already-in-place Arrow, then they’re losing ground on the TV game before they’re even off and running.With all of DC’s other television projects in development – like Amazon or Booster Gold – there’s opportunity to create a vast universe on the small screen, a place they’ve always found more success for the DC properties, before integrating those characters into theaters.Would you want Man of Steel and Arrow to exist the same fictional plane? Would you rather have separate movie and TV universes?

Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito , or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN . After Man of Steel comes out, his life will lose all sense of direction and purpose.