Uncategorized

ARROW’s Marc Guggenheim Talks Suicide Squad, Return Of The Huntress, And Crossing Over With THE FLASH

Speaking with Collider while promoting tonight’s big episode, “The Promise”, Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim looks ahead to the rest of the stellar second season. The next episode will bring the Suicide Squad into the mix, and here, Guggenheim addresses whether or not that was always the plan. “We started the year off with a list of characters who we wanted to see, and Bronze Tiger was one of them. Once we came up with an idea for how to do Bronze Tiger on the show, we very quickly did the math and were like, “You know, there’s Bronze Tiger, but Deadshot has also been on the show, and that’s already two members of the Suicide Squad,” and we realized that it was something that was possible. It wasn’t something that we backed into. We gave ourselves the freedom to go through Season 2 going, “You know what? If we organically build this group, then maybe in Season 2 or Season 3, we’ll get to see them.” But, we didn’t want to force it. One of the nice things about the Suicide Squad in Episode 16 is that it does feel very organic. It feels like it’s something that just came out very naturally from the characters and the storytelling that we’ve been doing, in the previous 15 episodes of this year. And even, quite frankly, playing with some pieces that we established last year, like the introduction of Lyla Michaels. It just has a nice feeling of completion to it, while at the same time, setting up potential further stories for the Suicide Squad. They’re a lot of fun together.  It’s wonderful to see David Ramsey and his character of John Diggle interact with them.”

He then discusses the return of Jessica De Gouw as The Huntress in the episode “Birds of Prey”. During her return to Starling City, she comes into conflict with the Black Canary. “It’s been literally a year, in story time, since we’ve seen her,” says Guggenheim. “One of the things we told Jessica De Gouw, who plays The Huntress, was that we weren’t interested in treading over old territory with Helena. What we pitched her was the idea that basically Helena Bertinelli is gone. The only thing that remains is The Huntress. It’s been a year of her literally scouring the world to find her father, who was on the run at the end of Episode 17 of last season. We really wanted to show that wear and tear on her. We even aged up her costume a little bit, so you really get the sense that she has been traveling the world and literally has just spent a year killing people to try to get at her dad, and it’s done quite a number on her soul. We get to explore all that, in a really fun episode that also deals with Laurel Lance, in a very big way. One of the things we wanted to do with the episode was give Laurel her groove back, as it were. We have obviously taken Laurel down a very dark path, this year. As we started to see at the end of last week’s episode, she’s going to start turning the corner. And this episode with The Huntress is a very big move in that direction.”

Finally, Guggenheim talks about The CW’s planned Arrow spin-off, The Flash. Unsurprisingly, there has been speculation that the two shows will eventually cross over. What does Guggenheim have to say about that idea? “Well, we’re fanboys and we always fantasize about, “Oh, we could do this cross-over.  We could do that episode.” Everything is always on the table. I think it’s one of the things that’s made Arrow special. But we also all collectively feel like The Flash needs to stand on its own two feet, now that it’s gotten its launch from Arrow. I would say, as with all things, we trust our instincts to know when is the right time. Our compass has always just been our gut instinct. When the time is right, it will happen. Greg [Berlanti], Andrew [Kreisberg] and Geoff [Johns] have got to finish The Flash pilot first. There are a bunch of things that have to happen before we can start cross-pollinating shows.” Guggenheim himself isn’t involved with The Flash, as he is currently busy with Arrow. However, he’s still open to writing a Flash episode someday. “Obviously, I would love to. Who knows what will happen? That would be a lot of fun. The Flash script is really, really terrific. It’s an outstanding pilot, and I know it will make a phenomenal series. Of course, it would be fun to work on any phenomenal series.” For Guggenheim’s full interview with Collider, click the link above.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of WOBAM! Entertainment.