Report: Brandon Routh Joins Arrow Cast As Ray Palmer, A.K.A. The Atom

UPDATE: The casting of Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer was confirmed by DC. The original post referencing TVLine’s report from earlier in the day follows.

It looks like that inventor/hero/potential love interest for Felicity Smoak won’t be the Blue Beetle after all, but someone a little smaller.

TVLine is reporting that Brandon Routh has joined the Season 3 cast of Arrow as Ray Palmer, better known to comic fans as the Silver Age version of the Atom. Routh already has his comic book bona fides thanks to starring as Superman in the 2006 film Superman Returns.

According to TVLine, Palmer will be the new owner of Queen Consolidated and have mysterious plans for the Applied Sciences Division. If those plans involve a technology that allows him to shrink while keeping his full strength, don’t be surprised. And it would be very much in keeping with the spirit of the Arrow-verse if the original limitation on other things that the Atom shrank exploded after several minutes. Super hero tech is dangerous! It’s also quite possible the tragedy alluded to in the previous descriptions of the character for the show refer to his wife, who went bad in a major way in the comics.

It’s looking like Season 3 is shaping up to be an exciting one, and perhaps packed with more appearances from familiar DC characters than ever before. You can check for Routh and all the other incoming guest stars when Arrow returns to The CW schedule on Wednesday, October 8 at 8 pm.