Stephen Amell Proposed Bruce Wayne Name Drop On Arrow

So, in a recent episode, the DC Comics/CW show Arrow did a major name drop of a character: Bruce Wayne. The Arrowverse as its called has stated that more or less the Arrow was the first “superhero” in the modern world (the JSA was revealed to be a real thing in the 40’s, but that was the past, not the present), and thus, heroes like Batman didn’t exist. Yet, Bruce Wayne is now confirmed to be in the world. Ironically though, the writers didn’t put in Bruce Wayne for the name drop. Star Stephen Amell did.

“The original version of that script, which came out right before Comic-Con, it was just Oliver referencing a famous name,” he revealed to Comic Book Resources. “I can’t remember what the placeholder was. I think it might have been Justin Bieber. I looked at it, and I thought to myself, ‘This is a cool opportunity.’ I talked with Greg Berlanti about it, and Greg said, ‘You know, I think that it would behoove you to just go directly to Geoff Johns and just simply ask. You’ll probably have better luck than I would.’”

So…he tried to.

“So I was at the DC Comics party at Comic-Con. Geoff and I were supposed to meet and chat quickly,” he continued. “I couldn’t track him down, and the next thing that 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! It will cost you nothing. I think it’d be really fun. It opens the door to a lot of possibilities.’”

To his surprise, and the joy of fans everywhere, they were cool with it. And Amell later noted that he thinks it would be the coolest thing for Bruce Wayne to not only show up, but have a big presence on Arrow. We’ll have to wait and see if that happens though.