ARROW Producer Talks 'Ra's al Ghul'; "We Wanted A Formidable Physical Presence"
Batman Begins took a different approach to Ra's al Ghul by casting Liam Neeson, and so too has Arrow with Riddick's Matt Nable. Executive producer Marc Guggenheim here teases the villain's role in season three and reveals why they didn't follow the comic books when it came to casting...
As you should have already seen by now, Arrow's Ra's al Ghul looks quite a bit different to his comic book counterpart (though there are definitely some similarities in terms of their appearance). Talking to MTV News, Marc Guggenheim explained why they decided to go in a different direction by casting Matt Nable in the iconic role. "In our casting process, we didn’t want to go with the willowy, sinewy Ra’s that was established in the comics," he reveals. "We wanted someone who would be a formidable physical presence. You can get away with that live sinewy Ra’s when it’s being drawn by Neal Adams, but when you actually have to put something in front of a camera, we thought it was better to have someone who added a good physical presence to that."
As for the role Ra's will play in the third season, the executive producer would confirm that he will indeed be the "big bad" and comments here on how the character differs to the likes of Malcolm Merlyn and Slade Wilson. "He’s definitely the main antagonist of the season. He’s responsible for a lot of the events that kick off the year, and reverberate throughout the season. He’s our Big Bad, and he’s a very different kind of Big Bad than we’ve had, Malcolm Merlyn and Slade Wilson. Ra’s exists above it all. He’s so much more powerful than Malcolm or Slade. He has so much deeper reach, and he has a much larger organization at his beck and call. He’s just a very different kind of foe." Are you guys looking forward to seeing more of Ra's al Ghul in Arrow?
About The Author:
Comic Book Reader. Film Lover. WWE and F1 Fan. Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and ComicBookMovie.com's #1 contributor.