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Stephen Amell Is Open To Bringing Batman Into Arrowverse?

It is an open secret that Stephen Amell is a huge Batman fan. He was so excited to name drop Bruce Wayne in Arrow and it was easier to get approval from Arrow makers than he thought. During an interview, Amell told media that the idea of bringing Batman’s alter ego in the show was his and he got it okayed from management at the DC big party. Here’s what he said:

“That was really funny; the original version of that script, which came out just before Comic-Con, was just Oliver referencing a famous name. I can’t even remember what the placeholder was; I think it might have been Justin Bieber. And I looked at it and thought to myself, ‘This is a cool opportunity.’ I talked to Greg Berlanti about it, and Greg said ‘I think it would behoove you to go straight to Geoff Johns and just simply ask. You’ll probably have better luck than I would.’ So I was at the DC Comics party at Comic Con — Geoff and I were supposed to meet and chat quickly. I couldn’t track him down, but the next thing I knew, I ended up in a four-way conversation with Peter Roth, Diane Nelson, and Kevin Tsujihara all at the same time. I was like, ‘Guys! I have an idea. I think it would be fun, I think it would open the door to a lot of possibilities.”

He didn’t say that Bruce Wayne would show up in the show but he said that name dropping him has opened up possibilities:

“I’ve always thought that Bruce Wayne would be an interesting ally on the show, and an even more interesting villain to Oliver, which doesn’t mean that he’s the villain, it just means that they don’t like each other. I had this holy trinity of Warner Bros. Television and DC and Warner Bros. overall in front of me, and I pitched this idea, and I’ve got all my follow-up points, and Kevin Tsujihara just goes, ‘Yeah, sure.’ It’s like, ‘Really?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, that sounds fun. Do that.’ So we did it, and I didn’t actually believe that it would make it until I actually saw it in the locked cut.”

Every actor has some kind of role fetish or a pet project they would one day want to be part of. But, you will be stunned to find out what’s the character that Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen/ Green Arrow) would like to play if given a chance.

He was in a press tour for his movie TMNT: Out of the Shadows, he was asked about which superhero would he like to play on big screen. One would naturally believe it should be Green Arrow, but he said “I always get this question. I think all the superheroes are taken now. I’ll play The Riddler, okay? It’s a villain, but I like The Riddler.”

This isn’t the first time that he has expressed his interest to play the role of Riddler, back in 2014 at San Diego Comic-Con International when he was asked the same question, he then said “The Riddler”. I think I actually said that to Geoff Johns at like 2 o’clock in the morning Saturday. ‘Hey, Geoff, I want to play the Riddler.’ That actually happened.” He further said “The Riddler, I mean that’s an awesome villain, and it hasn’t been in the modern…well, I guess modern, post-turn-of-the-century versions of Batman. So that would be cool.”

Riddler is a popular fictional super-villain based in Gotham, an arch-enemy of Batman, first appeared in Detective comics, 1948, created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang. In Gotham TV show, Edward Nygma portrayed version of “Riddler” on a small screen. He is a criminal mastermind with genius-level intellect, and has been a part of Secret six, Legion of Doom, Secret Society of Super Villains.

Stephen Amell gained fame from CW’s Arrow TV series which is a dark, brooding & edgy superhero drama, and to a large extent inspired from Batman lore. It’s understandable that Stephen Amell would have a liking for Batman characters, but Riddler is a strange choice for sure.

There have been multiple references to the character of Batman in the different seasons. Arrow has used Ra’s Ahl Ghul who is Batman foe in comics. In Flash season 2, when Barry goes to Earth-2 to fight Zoom, at his home’s speed-dial we see various names are mentioned, one of the name is Bruce. Further, Geoff John’s Flashpoint comic-book storyline was being adapted for Flash Season 3, where Batman is an integral part of the comic-book storyline. In the Legends of Tomorrow, Captain Hunter says “I have seen Men of Steel die and Dark Knights fall.” In Supergirl, Kara said, “My cousin worked with a vigilante once – tons of gadgets, lots of demons.”

One of the most direct references was in Arrow when Felicity is given a code name Overwatch instead of Oracle as it’s supposedly taken. Moreover, the show has used Ra’s Ahl Ghul who is Batman foe in comics. In the latest Arrow episode, Oliver Queen name dropped Bruce Wayne to shield himself from the allegation that he is the Green Arrow. Flash TV show has never shied away from dropping Batman references, in season 1 we saw the 2024 newspaper where Wayne Tech was completing a merger with Queen Consolidated. But recently in Season 4, Episode 2 titled ‘Mixed Signals’ we saw control screen for Barry’s new suit which had something called ‘Babel Protocol’ among the new features. In Justice League of America comics and the animated movie titled Justice League: Doom, we found mention of ‘Babel Protocol’ created by Batman as he does not trust his fellow team members which led to the downfall of Justice League at the hands of Ra’s Ahl Ghul in comic and Vandal Savage in the movie.

Here’re four ways in which the Dark Knight can be actually brought into Arrowverse:

Flashpoint 2.0:

Another Flashpoint like event can be created in future seasons which can be used as a plot device to bring Bruce Wayne into the alternate timeline. It would be big missed opportunity for DCEU not to utilize its biggest superhero to the fullest. Perhaps, in the previous timeline, his parents were alive and he did’nt transform into Batman.

Nightwing Solo show:

DC has been trying to make a spin-off shows of sidekicks or other important comic-book characters such as Birds of Prey. The best one would be a Nightwing series based on Dick Grayson coming out of Bat shadows on his own. Bloodhaven has been referenced many times on Arrow, so it would’nt be difficult to eventually bring Batman into this world.

batman

Flash Newspaper:

An easter-egg can be dropped in a Flash newspaper containing an article about the merger of Wayne Enterprises and Queen Consolidated. Bruce Wayne can travel to Star city to finalize business deal, but actually he is hunting a violent criminal (Riddler or Two-face) who escaped Gotham prison, both of them could team-up and take him down for good.

Gotham-Arrow Crossover:

The most obvious way to bring Batman in Arrowverse is the crossover event between Gotham TV show and CW Arrow.

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Anuj Aggarwal

A Voracious reader. An explorer. An Intellectual. A Die hard fan of Leonardo dicaprio and a Game of Thrones fanatic. Love to dabble in different things at the same time - Politics, International Cinema, History, Music, Literature etc. Welcome you all...
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