CW ‘Arrow’ Spoilers: EP Talks Matt Nable Ra’s al Ghul Comparison To Christian Bale Batman Liam Neeson After New Villain Cupid Teaser
Major Spoilers: Cupid (Supernatural's Amy Gumenick) might be Arrow’s next villain of the week, but The Green Arrow’s fan girl should be the least of the team’s worries. That is because The Demon’s Head, Ra’s al Ghul (Matt Nable) has declared war against Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell). Ra’s was famously played by Liam Neeson in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy starring Christian Bale as Batman. Now, Arrow’s executive producer Marc Guggenheim, has opened up about how well Nable stacks up to Neeson.
A few weeks back, Arrow-Heads got their very first look at Matt Nable as the leader of the League of Assassins, Ra’s al Ghul. Ra’s wasn’t very happy that Ollie Queen was defending The Dark Archer, Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman). The Arrow’s disobedience was considered an act of war.
Recently, Marc Guggenheim, Arrow’s co-executive producer, spoke to IGN about the challenges of bringing Ra’s to the small screen after the character's recent appearance in the Dark Knight Trilogy:
“It’s a tough sell or it’s a tough job because the truth is Ra’s has been so compellingly represented in the Chris Nolan Dark Knight films and that’s the version of Ra’s that blooms the largest in people’s mind. We wanted to do our own version of Ra’s.
“We drew a lot from the comics, the regal nature of the comic book Ra’s. The fact that he’s got his own code of honor, the way he fights. At the same time, in the comics, Neal Adams designed a sort of sinewy thing; an almost graceful Ra’s and while that’s good for comics, I’m sort of the opinion that while that’s great for comics, it doesn’t translate to being physically imposing when you put it on screen. So one of the things we wanted to do was cast a very physically imposing Ra’s al Ghul and Matt Nable, he strikes this really perfect balance between…
“On the one hand, he does have a regalness to him. At the same time, there’s no doubt in your mind that he could kill you with the flick of his hand.”
Are You looking forward to seeing Ollie square off against Ra’s? What villains do you want to see next on Arrow? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of the page.