Yeah, you would have thought that given Marvel's success in linking film and TV franchises together, DC would have followed that blueprint, given they're clearly pretty desperate to have their own MCU. They have suggested there may be some links between the TV shows and the films, but the bigger TV shows like Arrow and the Flash get, the less resources the films have, especially Arrow, which is gobbling up characters typically outside Ollie's own book like crazy.

As for moving it to avoid Civil War.. I can understand that; Winter Soldier is pretty much THE Marvel movie alongside Avengers and Iron Man 1 - a film that people seem to almost universally like, although I can take or leave Avengers (Whedon is blegh to me) - but given the amount of time they've had making this one, I would have timed it for the New Year, so it isn't really crushed by Star Wars.