Arrow Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg on Whether Malcolm Merlyn's Origin is Tied to Ra’s Al Ghul

DC Comics fans watching Arrow a couple of weeks back did a double take when Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), revealing a bit of his history, mentioned he’d traveled to Nanda Parbat, where he met a man who gave his life purpose.

As DC fans know, Nanda Parbat is important as a location tied into the history of Ra's Al Ghul. So could that be the man Merlyn was referring to? And could Ra's Al Ghul himself appear on Arrow?

I spoke to Arrow executive producer Andrew Kreisberg this past weekend, as the show was honored at PaleyFest. When I asked him about the use of Nanda Parbat on the show, he joked, “I thought we made that up!,” before adding, “There will be slightly more elaboration on that.” He then laughed as he remarked, “There’s probably a name that people want to hear mentioned that I’m not sure, legally, we can mention!”

Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), about to go all League of Assassins

DC/Warner Bros. has been notoriously restrictive on incorporating elements of Batman into their other live action projects in the past decade, nixing Bruce Wayne from ever appearing on Smallville. But as Kreisberg noted, the connection was natural, since, “In the DC Comics, Merlyn was a member of the League of Assassins, which was created by Ra’s Al Ghul.”

But as to whether Ra's Al Ghul himself -- famously previously played by Liam Neeson in Batman Begins -- could be a factor on Arrow, he said, “Some of that is going to be based on what we’re allowed to say. But those little Easter Eggs… We think that stuff works best when it flies over the heads of people who don’t know DC Comics and they don’t care, and it makes people like you and me go, ‘Yes! Yes!’ So we’ll see moving forward. But our intention is Merlyn is the Merlyn from the comics and we’ll see… They’ll definitely be more homages to his character and where he came from coming up.”

Find out more about what the Arrow producers had to say at PaleyFest, including describing Malcolm Merlyn as "Evil Bruce Wayne”

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