Last month, The CW got tongues wagging about a possible Batman appearance in the Arrowverse when Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen name-dropped Bruce Wayne in an episode of Arrow, and now the actor has revealed how it was his idea to make reference to Oliver’s fellow billionaire vigilante, as well as discussing how he got the go-ahead from the top brass at Warner Bros. and DC.
“The original version of the script, which came out just before Comic-Con, was just Oliver referencing a famous name,” states Amell. “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 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 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 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.'”
“I’ve always thought that Bruce Wayne would be an interesting ally on the show, and an even more interesting villain to Oliver,” he continues. “Which doesn’t mean that he’s the villain, it just means 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 it would make it until I actually saw in the locked cut.”
While the chances of a Batman appearance in the Arrowverse seem very slim indeed, The CW did get the go ahead to introduce Superman during the season two premiere of Supergirl, so perhaps it isn’t entirely beyond the realm of possibility.
SEE ALSO: Follow all of our coverage of Arrow here
Arrow season 6 airs on Thursdays on The CW in the States and on Sky1 in the UK.
Via CBM
