Former Man of Steel Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is set to play yet another comic book character this year, as he’s joined the cast of Arrow as Ray Palmer, a.k.a. The Atom. In the comics, Palmer is a physicist who specializes in matter compression, and uses a mass of white dwarf star matter to create a suit that enables him to shrink down to microscopic size.
He’ll debut on Arrow this season as the owner of Palmer Technologies, and appears to take over Queen Consolidated now that Oliver’s lost the company. Many assumed that we’d see him suit up as The Atom at some point in the series, but according to Routh himself, that may not be the case.
Executive producer Marc Guggenheim spoke with Green Arrow TV, and was asked about their plans for Ray Palmer and whether or not Routh would don a costume on the show. Interestingly enough, Guggenheim hints that that may not happen on Arrow, and that Palmer could jump over to The Flash to use his powers instead:
“I think anything is possible. My instinct is that if Ray Palmer’s going to shrink, he’ll probably shrink on another show. With The Flash in existence, there’s no real compelling reason for us to do super powers on Arrow. We can bring characters to The Flash to have super powers. We have plans for Ray that don’t involved shrinking, but our plans for Ray are actually really cool.”
With the two series sharing the same universe, it makes sense that supporting characters could potentially jump from one series to another. Personally, I don’t have a problem with seeing superpowers on Arrow, but I get that the showrunners will want to keep the more “grounded” and realistic tone while saving the “super” aspects of the shared universe for The Flash.
The Flash debuts on the CW on Tuesday October 7. Arrow returns for its third season a day later, one Wednesday October 8th.
Originally published October 4, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
