I get & agree with the idea of building off of something successful.
But wasn't Marvels Phase 1 at least plotted out before Iron Man started filming?
It existed as a potential, but any good plan is flexible and adapts to what actually happens. Intelligent planning is not about saying "We will do this," period. It's more about saying "If A happens, we will be ready to respond to it by doing X, but if B happens, we will be ready to respond to it by doing Y, and if C happens...," etc.
So building a larger universe was an
option for Marvel Films if their first film succeeded. They didn't jump the gun and schedule a half-dozen films years in advance before they even knew if the first one would work. They didn't schedule
The Incredible Hulk 2 and then have to deal with the disappointing performance of the first film. They started small, kept their options open, and waited until they had a success before they proceeded. You can't force a whole franchise to be successful just by pre-planning it.
Also, the Arrowverse really shouldn't effect much the universes of "big names" (and big FX) like Superman & Batman & WOnder WOman. Unless Arrowverse plans on creating something as powerful as SHIELD....they'd be fine.
My concern is the reverse. So far I like the Arrowverse a whole lot better than the movie universe, and I don't want to see a universe that's been proven successful have its fate bound to a universe that's still largely untested and of questionable quality. Again, it's smarter to see what works
before you start tying everything together. You can't just lump everything together in advance and expect that to automatically turn out well.
If the Arrowverse were bound to the movies, then it would be enslaved to them. Its own storytelling goals would be overshadowed and constrained by those of the movies, because the movies would have a far bigger audience and a far bigger profit potential. So if the movies do badly, it would ruin the TV universe. Marvel did the smart thing by waiting until the movie universe was smoothly on track before developing TV series that complemented it, series that were designed from the start to fit into it. That's not the case here. You're proposing an arbitrary, forced merger between two continuities that were conceived separately, and there's absolutely no reason to assume that would turn out well, because it's an entirely different situation from what Marvel did.
2 of the really memorable things that tie ALL Marvel Movies (even SOny & Fox) are 2 simple things that don't affect the others movies (unless they WANT it too):
1)Post CRedit scenes (which can add whatever value they want...from fun to a preview of a future movie)
2) Stan Lee as some random character.
No, what ties the movies together are the careful behind-the-scenes plans made by the filmmakers and executives. Don't mistake the superficial links we see from our side of the curtain for the invisible planning that takes place on the other side.
Geoff Johns did a great job with Smallville in connecting it to a wider DC universe...
But one that was created and existed entirely within the show, and that therefore developed in harmony with it.
Not one that was created separately and then artificially grafted onto it. The question is not whether
Arrow should be able to expand into a larger DC universe, because obviously it's already doing so. The question is whether it should get to create its own version of the DC universe rather than being forced into a shotgun wedding with a separately developed incarnation of that universe that might not fit well with it and might do it more harm than good to be connected to.
The Arrowverse is working well on its own. The movie universe is off to a creaky start and may be a bloated and costly disaster waiting to happen. But the movies are a much, much bigger beast than the shows, and if they're linked together, then the movies' fate will dictate the shows' fate. So let's wait to see if the movie universe even
works before we start talking about binding them together. If the movies crash and burn, I'd much rather have the TV universe stay independent of them so it doesn't get dragged down with them.
