Flash’s Danielle Panabaker Was Paid Less Than $10,000 for Arrow Crossover

Danielle Panabaker got brutally honest about how much she was paid when The CW did crossover episodes between Arrow and The Flash.

“This was one of the first surprises to me. So in Flash’s first season, they did the first crossover and it was just The Flash and Arrow. It was Stephen Amell, David [Ramsey] and Emily [Bett Rickards] crossing over to The Flash, and Grant [Gustin], Carlos [Valdes] and I crossed over to Arrow,” Panabaker, 37, said on the Tuesday, August 5, episode of the “Inside of You” podcast. “And the offer to do two jobs at the same time — to do the same role — when we guest-starred on Arrow was top of show.”

Panabaker claimed she was being paid “less than $10,000,” adding, “This was the first inclination of like, ‘This is crazy. You hired me to play the role of Caitlin Snow, and I am to do this job at the same time, and I am going to work twice as hard. I’m doing two jobs and getting paid a fraction of what I am paid to do that job on The Flash.”

Based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, The CW introduced Amell as Oliver Queen in 2012. The series, which ran until 2020, also starred Katie Cassidy, Colin Donnell, Willa Holland, Paul Blackthorne and Colton Haynes. During its run, Arrow inspired several spinoffs, including The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and a backdoor pilot for Green Arrow & The Canaries.

The Flash, meanwhile, debuted on The CW in 2016 after Gustin made several appearances on Arrow as Barry Allen. The spinoff introduced viewers to Panabaker, Candice Patton, Tom Cavanagh, Jesse L. Martin, Keiynan Lonsdale and Jessica Parker Kennedy as well.

“When we signed on to The Flash, Arrow [already] existed and The Flash was a pilot. At that time, they did not bake crossovers into our contracts,” Panabaker recalled. “I think we were the last show that they stopped doing that. I think any other show — like Legends or Supergirl — it was in their contracts that if they crossed over to another show, they would only get a fraction of their [rate].”

Panabaker claimed not everyone agreed to the amount they were offered.

“As years went on, I think that changed more for people like Stephen and Grant and Melissa [Benoist],” she added. “I know someone who said, ‘No, pay me my salary.’ And they wrote that person out of the crossovers.”

Panabaker isn’t the only one to recently speak out about her experience in the Arrow universe.

“Happy to be here, easy to work with. It’s my slogan,” Cassidy, 38, shared in March on the “Inside of You” podcast before host Michael Rosenbaum asked if that was always her slogan on the Arrow set, to which she replied, “I will say this, I had to eat some humble pie when they killed me off that show. It was really hard.”

She continued: “I was in shock because the next day I was in New York going to Comic-Con with my whole cast. I was angry at first. And I was emotional because I was sad and I was angry because I was so happy [working on the show]. It was a couple of things [that led to the decision]. I have theories. I think it was political. It’s a lot.”