Brandon Talks A.T.O.M. Suit, Potential Spinoff at TCAs

Brandon Routh was one of several ARROW cast members who sat down with the Television Critics Association (photos) to discuss plans for the show in the near future. One of the hottest topics discussed was a possible THE ATOM series spinning off from ARROW like THE FLASH. Plus...when will the super-suit make its debut on ARROW?

SuperHeroHype spoke exclusively with Brandon about wearing the A.T.O.M. suit and a spin-off show.

SHH: When you got the role of Ray Palmer, did you start reading Atom comics?
Routh: I did, because I didn’t really know too much about Atom before. It wasn’t essential because the character is being re-envisioned a little bit for the show, but it’s great for me to be able to understand the history and there’s a couple different iterations of it. Like, right now I’m reading “Sword of the Atom,” which is a cool series in the early ‘80s where actually he doesn’t really even size change that much because he’s afraid he might blow up because of what’s happening. What remains is his brain in all the thing, his leadership quality that he has that exists in both what we’re creating now and what’s in the comics of what I’ve read.

SHH: Have they taken your measurements for potential costumes?
Routh: Oh yeah, we’re into it. You’ll definitely see the suit before the end of the season.

SHH: It looks so technological because he’s inventing it, so does it feel different than the Superman suit?
Routh: The basis of the suit, all those suits are kind of similar. They have that same tight fitting quality that are kind of inherent in pretty much everything, if only just to make everything else, all the other layers on top fit snugly and look good. So there’s that aspect of it but it’s a very powerful feeling. The best way to describe it is it’s an Iron Man/RoboCop-ish feel, but different from all those too. Like, something you haven’t seen, exoskeleton as you can see from the hologram, that’s pretty badass.

Read the full interview at SHH.

ARROW's executive producer talked to Nerdist about a potential spin-off, the A.T.O.M. suit, and an A.T.O.M. action figure (!).

N: Thus far your discussions about an Atom show have been preliminary?
MG: Yeah, we’ve talked in the most preliminary of ways about doing something with Brandon beyond Arrow.

N: Is that something you’ve kept in mind when designing his costume, about whether it could work in an Atom series as well as on episodes of Arrow?
MG: No, the costume is just “How do we get it to work on Arrow?” Maya Mani did the design that she always does. It’s her best costume, and that’s really saying something. It’s coming together beautifully. Brandon just did his third fitting with it, and it’s the most ambitious costume we’ve ever done on the show. One of the things I like about it is we did it without consideration of a spinoff. We did it because this is a cool thing to have on Arrow.

N: Is it to soon to say which episode the suit will debut in?
MG: It is only in so far in that it’s one of those things that I’ve got to get clearance to talk about. But I finally know. Unlike every other time I’ve done an interview, where it’s like, “It’s when the suit’s ready!” [Laughs.] Now I finally know what episode it’s going to be.

N: We can’t wait to have a new Atom action figure lined up next to our Arrow and Flash figures.
MG: Yeah, they’re already planning the action figure!

Read the full interview at Nerdist.

During the ARROW/THE FLASH panel in front of the critics, KSite summarized all the Ray Palmer/A.T.O.M. comments.

"When this was proposed to me, it was just a meeting about to come and talk about this idea that they had for a character, and I was hesitant, yes, to be honest, stepping into this DC world again... really never thinking that would happen, that I would never play another superhero, having played, in my mind, the pinnacle character," he admitted. "But I went forth with open arms, because I appreciated the work of the show, seeing Arrow and the great work they were doing there. And, you know, it's been nothing but an amazing experience, getting to play a character that I get to go and have fun and be light most of the time, and have fun with Emily [Bett Rickards, who plays Felicity Smoak]," he continued.

"We are in very early talks on a very general, very general idea that we haven't dug deeper on yet, and we're not allowed to say anything about it yet. That's all I can say," Greg Berlanti said, with Marc Guggenheim adding that right now, they are just trying to get the Atom suit finished.

Read more at KSite.