Stephen Amell Reveals Who Came Up with Idea for Establishing Bruce Wayne in the Arrowverse (Spoiler: It Was Him)

A couple of weeks ago, Arrow set the internet into a frenzy when Oliver Queen mentioned Bruce Wayne in a press conference. After five years, we finally had confirmation that Batman — or at least, his alter-ego — existed within the Arrowverse. There had already been mentions of Gotham City and Superman's dark, brooding friend on Supergirl, but until now, there was nothing to say that he existed on Earth-1.

Just as Superman has no counterpart on Earth-1, it seemed that Batman also only existed on Earth-38. After Arrow Season 6, Episode 2, however, there is no doubt that Bruce Wayne is part of the #Arrowverse, and the fans were hugely excited by this name drop.

But it wasn't always planned for Oliver Queen to mention the man from Gotham — in fact, Amell came up with the idea himself.

As Stephen Amell recently told ComicBook.com on the Arrow set, the line originally referred not to Bruce Wayne, but rather to Justin Bieber:

"That was really funny; the original version of that script, which came out just before Comic-Con, was just Oliver referencing a famous name, I can't even remember what the placeholder was; I think it might have been Justin Bieber."

While someone as famous as Bieber would have fit the bill in terms of the script, Amell was inspired to take the script in a different direction:

"I looked at it and thought to myself, 'This is 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 probably 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 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.'"

It actually makes perfect sense to mention #BruceWayne in Arrow, as many of the show's storylines were adapted from #Batman stories. Many fans have noted the fact that it took heavy inspiration from the grounded nature of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy and have even pointed out that this adaptation of the Green Arrow is basically Batman with a bow and arrow.

Amell continued to state his case, even mentioning how he felt the two men would interact on the show:

"I've always thought that Bruce Wayne would be an interesting ally on the show, and an even more interesting villain to Oliver. Which doesn't mean that he's the villain, it just means that 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 that it would make it until I actually saw it in the locked cut."

One Name Opens a World of Possibilities

The mere mention of Bruce Wayne in the #Arrowverse opens up a number of possibilities, though Amell's idea is possibly the most interesting. The idea of the Dark Knight not particularly liking the Emerald Archer certainly offers some interesting ideas. It could be that the two men had already met before in billionaire's circles and never really got along, which would lead to an interesting confrontation if they discovered each other's nocturnal activities.

It's a standard superhero trope that when two heroes collide, they fight. Surely Batman and the Green Arrow would be no different in the Arrowverse. As neither hero has superpowers, it would certainly be a fair fight, and the reliance on gadgets and athletic ability would make it an interesting one. We already know that Oliver defeated Ra's al Ghul, but was the Arrowverse Bruce Wayne also trained by him?

All of this remains to be seen, but whether or not Batman appears in the Arrowverse, we can certainly thank Stephen Amell for opening the door to the possibility.