There has been a lot of movement over at the headquarters of CW’s Arrow. Superman Returns star Brandon Routh has joined the cast for an extended stint of episodes for the third season. He will be playing Ray Palmer, the scientist who eventually becomes the hero, The Atom. Like his name suggests, Palmer can shrink himself (and other things depending on the writer) to the relative size of a molecule. That distinguishes himself from Marvel’s Ant-Man who can shrink in size to smaller than an ant. Here is the synopsis from TVLine (via Joblo):
Ray will play an unexpected role in the lives of Oliver and (rumored love interest) Felicity as the new owner of Queen Consolidated. Palmer’s plans for Queen Consolidated’s Applied Sciences Division will be shrouded in mystery.
In addition to his myriad comic book appearances, Ray/The Atom — who can alter the size of his body as well as other objects
The addition of The Atom is curious considering the turmoil that Ant-Man has been undergoing with last-minute director and writer changes. It brings to mind the race to put Quicksilver on-screen between Fox and Marvel studios. Is DC trying to take a little of the punch out of Marvel’s project, apparently so…
It is also another indication that with The Flash debuting this fall, that Arrow is definitively loosing the grounded approach of its first season and fully embracing the fantastic nature of the DC Universe. It is also a return to the DC world of superheroes for Routh. It is technically a demotion, going from the Superman to the Atom. However, that role is already filled by Henry Cavill and Arrow is hit show, so it certainly could have been worse. Who knows, there has already been one show spawned from Arrow. If audiences respond, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to see another tv show in development.