Producer Marc Guggenheim Talks Ra’s al Ghul

We’ve been hearing his name mentioned for awhile now, but in this week’s episode “The Magician,” we finally got see Ra’s al Ghul make his “Arrow” debut! His appearance at the end of the “The Magician” is just the tip of the iceberg of  what we can expect from the character throughout this season, as Producer Marc Guggenheim recently chatted with MTV to discuss bringing the iconic character of Ra’s al Ghul to “Arrow” as the big villain of season 3. Here is what he told MTV:
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“In our casting process, we didn’t want to go with the willowy, sinewy Ra’s that was established in the comics. 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.”

“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.”

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The first two seasons of “Arrow” had fantastic main villains in Malcolm and Slade, and if you’re looking for a new bad guy to be an even bigger threat than those two were, Ra’s al Ghul is definitely the character to use, and I have no doubt the crew working on the series will deliver a great and memorable portrayal of the Demon’s Head.

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One response to “Producer Marc Guggenheim Talks Ra’s al Ghul”

  1. Agent X Avatar
    Agent X

    I’m like a HUGE supporter of the Al Ghul’s and Ra’s and Nyssa are on Arrow at this point in time.
    Nyssa Raatko Al Ghul
    I don’t believe this is the real Nyssa we are seeing in Arrow. As to why I say this, well there are a few reasons.
    Nyssa would never kneel before Ra’s. Why you ask? Well it stems back to her families origins Ra’s could have saved her family when they were taken to the concentration camps but he didn’t he left them to die at the hands of the Nazis. Where Nyssa was experimented on and rendered unable to bear children. She would never simply kneel before Ra’s, she would have stood face to face with him then being the dutiful daughter that Talia was trained to be.
    The character we’re seeing here is more Talia than Nyssa.
    Nyssa is quite the extremist and nearly zealous when it comes to her own ideals which she showed in Death and the Maidens when she killed Talia over and over again, reviving her by way of Lazarus Pit in effort to brainwash Talia to do her bidding.
    I will admit right here that I kind of growled slightly hearing Malcom use Talia’s trademark “Beloved” when he described Sara’s relationship with Nyssa. Cause any Talia fan knows that’s her classic trademark term when she talks about Bruce/Batman.
    Ra’s Al Ghul
    Upon hearing that Matt Nable was taking on the role I went back and watched Riddick god only knows how many times to see if he was up to snuff for the part. I think he might be but it’s still early as of right now to tell so will just have to wait.
    Now onto the first reveal. Ra’s rising out of the bathtub I right away envisioned him rising from the Lazarus Pit. The dressing of him it was painstakingly slow and I was on the edge of my seat going “Dress faster!” cause I wanted to see what he looked like.
    When we finally saw Ra’s in his outfit I will admit that I was rather glad to see the classic Asian/Arab tones in his outfit. I still want his sword for myself. But there was two teeny tiny little issues with his hair, Ra’s classically has hair that kind of sticks out like horns sure I know that’s a little tough to do for any medium but it would have been nice to see. Who knows we might just see it later on. He kind of lacked the trademark goatee as well though there was a touch of it present.
    Overall good episode in my opinion. Though I am still wishing and praying that Talia actually shows up or for that matter Dusan as well the Al Ghul family as a whole needs to be seen more of.

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