Van Wayne is Obfuscating Stupidity
He is actually fully aware of his cousin's alter ego and his true mission in running Wayne Securities is to develop tech for Batman. Claiming that everyone was fired in the pilot was a trick to motivate the team out of a slump, which paid off flawlessly as it led to them inventing the scent detector, which found its way to Bruce Wayne/Batman awfully quickly...- Unlikely, since he wants Batman to monetarily pay for damaging his car.
- Unless it is cover?
- "No Consequence Day" provides more evidence against this. Right before time rewinds, Van excitedly tells the team that he discovered Bruce is Batman when he accidentally found the Batcave. Granted, he could have just been using the pending rewind as a way to share the secret without consequences, but why make up the story about just discovering this fact?
Emily's father is the Floronic Man
She brings up the flower shop a lot, and in the pilot mentions that he always smelled like flowers. It would set up an interesting Broken Pedestal plot if she were to find out that he's a super villain. Alternately, Emily's mom is the family supervillain.
It would explain why she never talks about her mother; either she wasn't around while Emily was growing up or Emily's ashamed of the truth and avoids it. It could also explain why Emily's such a big fan of superheroes and so gung-ho about helping people; once she learned her mother was a super-criminal who endangered innocents, Emily resolved to atone for her mother's misdeeds by helping bystanders instead. It also explains why Emily reacted so badly to learning about Dan/Reggie's henchmen job despite her coworkers acting like henching alone wasn't a deal-breaker: It wasn't just that he was a criminal or that he lied to her, it also brought up bad memories of her mother....but not how the audience would expect—Amell will play Barry and Gustin will play Oliver, with both of them doing an Affectionate Parody of each other. The show takes place in the same universe as Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
They share a similarly lighthearted atmosphere and bright color-palette as well as a similar way of handling interactions between the super and non-super worlds, plus BatB was strongly influenced by the 60s live-action Batman and Adam West, who played 60s Batman, narrates the opening for the Powerless pilot. Of all the Batmen, BatB is the most natural fit for the Bruce Wayne who's forced to weather a constant barrage of Van begging for a transfer. It also explains why, unlike the other DC TV shows, Charm City doesn't seem to have a dedicated hero/rogue's gallery and instead uses a spectrum of characters for its references and Mythology Gags, since BatB was a lot more relaxed re: hero team-ups and hero-villain matchups.- Alternately, it takes place in The Lego Batman Movie universe/a live-action version of the same, explaining the more comedic overtones and the casual attitude towards both supervillains and the type of collateral damage and city-destruction usually caused by metahuman activity.
Charm City sits in the middle of a perpetual Crossover.
Hence why otherwise-unrelated heroes and villains are active in the same city and why Riddler's henchmen were operating outside of Gotham, not to mention why Dan/Reggie was beaten up by Green Lantern instead of Batman or some other Gotham-related hero. Many henchmen in Charm City, and possibly elsewhere, are the equivalent of temps.
They're rented out to villains in need of mooks, providing an alternate explanation for the above: Dan/Reggie might have been in Charm City on a job for the Riddler but was also doing some overnight temp-henching for a Green Lantern villain. They're probably hired out by the DC equivalent of Taskmaster or the same place where the Guild of Calamitous Intent sources their henchmen. Jackie is Crimson Fox.
Charm City's own resident hero is hiding in plain sight. Also note the rivalry/affection towards Global Guardians teammate The Olympian. They will meet their insurance company counterparts
It will be the show's version of a Crisis event. Teddy will become Blue Beetle
He has Ted Kord's technical genius and general fun attitude, Heo be's a superhero fanboy, which is something Rebirth Ted is known to be It's only a matter of time before he fashions a suit and gets into the superhero game himself