Stephen Amell Reveals How Arrow’s Name-Dropping Of Bruce Wayne Came About

Even though Greg Berlanti and company have crafted quite the interconnected DC Universe over on The CW, there are still some big names that have yet to put in appearances. And as awesome as those fall crossovers tend to be, it’s hard to imagine a DC Universe existing without certain characters – like Batman, for one.

Obviously, a lot of this has to do with the fact that there’s some red tape separating the film and television divisions at Warner Bros., but we’ve seen the suits become more liberal when it comes to spreading the wealth these days. Still, that hasn’t stopped Arrow from making use of major Batman villains over the years, with the likes of Ra’s al Ghul, Talia al Ghul and Anarky being but a few of them.

Given all that, it still came as quite the shock when Oliver Queen deflected public suspicion from himself a few weeks back by suggesting that it could be anyone – including Bruce Wayne – masquerading as the Green Arrow. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Bruce is at the point in his life where he’s taken up cape and cowl in the Arrowverse, but it’s reassuring to know that he exists in it.

Funny enough, the original teleplay included a different celebrity name which actor Stephen Amell can’t quite recall, telling ComicBook.com that it may have been Justin Bieber. Regardless of whomever it was, credit actually goes to Amell himself for making this all happen, as he detailed how it all came about at San Diego Comic-Con:

“So I was at the DC Comics party at Comic Con — Geoff [Johns] 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’. 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.”

If anything, Arrow has a proud history of making good on DC characters it name-drops. To be realistic, though, there’s likely no way Bruce Wayne will head over to Star City for the time being unless, of course, Gotham isn’t renewed for a fifth season. Either way, we’ll keep our fingers crossed, as this team-up would certainly be a dream come true.