Originally Posted by
Jeevanjacobjohn
Yes, I see what you are saying, but all these characters (And their histories) are way more complicated than Star Wars or Star Trek (unless they limit the number of characters they are going to use..and so forth).
But, even then there are going to be problems (especially if they are connecting everything).
Look at Marvel for instance...few more years down the line, I am interested in what they are going to do. Are they going to reboot the continuity? They have announced that they have an outline for the next 14 years (It's going to be messy if it's all in the same continuity...that's asking a lot of the audience).
They also have to decide on the actors. Take Iron Man.
RDJ is Iron Man and Iron Man is RDJ...It's going to take a lot of effort to replace that character (actor fit too well into the role. From a writer's perspective, that's great. From a franchise building company's perspective, it's going to make things a lot harder further down the line).
Given all that, it's better not to connect everything and do a soft reboot every now and then (If you are building a multiverse, it's even easier...you don't have to worry much about continuity).
DC is doing what they do in comics - building a multiverse (it also allows writers to experiment with the tone...gives them more creative freedom....instead of just sticking with realistic, dark and gritty).
If they connect Arrow to DCU, Arrow writers won't be calling the shots anymore...Movie executives will (nothing wrong with that...but, Arrow writers are the ones that made Arrow a success, not the executives). I doubt they would have allowed them (writers) to use many Batman villains, if they were planning to connect it to DCU (Seriously...Batman just allows his villains to go into another city and cause damage? He doesn't do that).
Sure, we could say that Batman was busy...but every time? He was busy all the time?
In any case, why should DC connect everything? Because Marvel does it? That's a really bad reason.