Arrow‘s John Barrowman Now a Series Regular Across All CW/DC Shows
Malcolm Merlyn is going to be making all kinds of fresh mischief in all kinds of places (and times?), as the result of Arrow vet John Barrowman‘s new deal.
TVLine has learned exclusively that akin to the groundbreaking contract that Wentworth Miller segued into at the end of his single-season Legends of Tomorrow run, Barrowman will continue to appear on Arrow and maintain series regular status — but across all of the superhero shows executive-produced by Greg Berlanti, including The Flash and Legends.
“What it really emulates to us is the comic books themselves, where there really are a cast of characters,” Berlanti said in May, when Miller’s own deal was announced. “In success, we hope to continue with other characters finding their way across all the shows.”
Barrowman recurred on Arrow‘s first two seasons, including as Oliver’s primary Season 1 adversary, then was promoted to series regular starting with Season 3. During Season 4, he also appeared on The Flash (during the crossover that teed up the DC’s Legends of Tomorrow spinoff) and had a short arc on The CW‘s Reign (as the Scottish clan leader Munro).
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Sweet deal!
I like John B. but his character was overused and overplayed in Arrow, ESPECIALLY in S4. I was actually hoping they would reduce his role significantly. Give us a break a bit, let us MISS the character.
Ya in season 2 and 3 maybe 3 he was really good but the character last season was in limbo like what was his purpose
@sarah t
I’m with you.
I agree. No offense to the actor himself, but I was hoping they’d kill off his character. I feel like he should’ve been gone a while ago. I have no idea how he’s going to be a regular on all of those shows. I find it bizarre.
You’re absolutely correct been overused if you ask me they ruin the character completely he was just popping up at will now remind you this is the guy that contribute to killing his best friend which was his son his father I’m talking about Arrow he contribute to his ex-girlfriend getting murder because he hypnotise his own daughter into doing it and he blew up half the city and yet he can just jump up and pop up whenever he wants not to mention that he got Arrow son kidnapped by Damian dark they just ruin this guy character completely
Completely agree, he had no point in season 4, I was hoping that we would see less of him/the end of him too. But, this deal might be an improvement over him being a straight Arrow regular.
Ugh, why? I can’t stand him anymore with his terrible acting. Seriously, his acting is Joe Morton on Scandal levels of bad and irritating for me. That and he’s such an awful character. I’ve accepted the fact that Arrow is long gone from it’s former glory, but I don’t want him ruining The Flash.
I couldn’t agree more. He’s as mediocre an actor as it gets and the thoroughly obnoxious manner he gives off in interviews seeps into his “acting.” I don’t watch any of these shows so happy he won’t be appearing on any I do watch. My friends in the UK are thrilled he’s no longer on every other stupid quiz/reality/morning show over there.
Gotta agree with you; he’s overrated (just like Morton on Scandal). If there’s one character from Arrow that actually needed to go it was Malcolm.
Awesome AWESOME news !!!
Perhaps we get some follow up on exactly what he did with the Vandal Savage ashes (but hope against hope we are totally done with Vandal and that damnit Barry won’t become a fairly common refrain among all the shows next season). I actually could see him bothering the people in National City a bit more than the Star City folks and the Legends people who basically roll their eyes at him and, well, Central City’s quasi bad guys have powers and I suspect that will more be Wentworth Miller’s primary stomping grounds.
Why? He’s not even from the same Earth as the National City we know. There is not any reason at all to have him show up on Supergirl.
Supergirl being on a different Earth might change after the four series crossover, but this makes no mention of him being on Supergirl at all. That might also change though.
Just because Supergirl isn’t from the same Earth, doesn’t mean Earth-S doesn’t have a Malcolm Merlyn.
Supergirl will be set on the same Earth as the other three shows before the season is out — count on it. There will be a ‘Earth merge’ or a ‘mini-crisis’ or something, but National City’s days of being on a parallel Earth are soon coming to a close, I’m sure.
But why? I don’t want him on The Flash.
I really doubt they’re going to make it work this whole regular across DC shows for him and for Wentworth Miller…I just dont see it. They’ll end up being eventual guest star and thats it.
This is great news! I love Barrowman but Arrow hasn’t really known what to do with him for two seasons now. With this deal, he can pop in for a few episodes a season, and then bounce around the other shows. He could also act as the connective tissue to make the crossovers/timelines make more sense and line up better.
This might be a positive step forward for John. It feels like they are running out of ideas with Malcolm on “Arrow;” maybe having him interacting with characters on other CW shows will produce some fresh scenarios to take advantage of john’s talents
Ugh, why? He hasn’t been relevant since Season One. What purpose could he possibly bring to Flash or Supergirl? That character ran its course and ran out its welcome a LONG time ago. This is a poor, poor plan.
Barry changed the timeline on “The Flash” so Malcolm could be completely different on that show like a lot of the characters will be. “Supergirl” takes place on a different Earth and “The Flash” confirmed everyone has doppelgangers on Supergirl’s Earth as well, but the writers also confirmed the “Legends” timeship can jump to other Earths as well.
I have my theories on The Flash‘s Malcolm………..
Is this the same as wentworth’s contract? like he will guest star in a few flash episodes?
Ahhhh perhaps he will take up the mantel of Flashpoint’s Thomas Wayne. I was thinking it was going to be Robert Queen, but from a logistics standpoint for the shows, this would make a lot of sense.
Which are……
I guess this is one way for him to get his hand back as well.
Stop with the ‘Supergirl is on a different Earth’ B.S. …. you don’t actually think that’s going to still be the case, do you?
Supergirl will be on the same Earth as Barry and Ollie this season. It’s pretty much certain.
Tell us what you have heard, Joe. Sounds like you know things!
They should have killed his character off after season 1. I love Barrowman but his character has long outlived his usefulness and his welcome. #Makearrowgreatagain
Funny that only gay actors working on those shows are getting this status across all shows.
I like JB but I just didn’t see any further character potential for Malcolm. It just seemed like last season or two they really didn’t know what to do with him.
Oh for the love of…. Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?!?
.
I know I’m whining but I am so tired of Malcolm and the show and the characters being twisted and made into idiots to make him relevant. He should have died in season three. Oliver should have killed him or turned him over to Ra’s when he found out what he did to Sara and Thea, instead of being a giant idiot about it. Oliver should have killed him last season. THEA should have killed him last season when she found out he drugged her again! I seriously thought the season was building up to Thea killing him, and then…..nothing. Totally disappointed.
.
All that ranting to say……nooooooo. I absolutely do not want more of Malcolm. At. All. Barrowman may be a great guy but Malcolm has absolutely become one of Arrow’s biggest issues. He needs to be gone. Like, yesterday. He’s become the Sylar of this show, a villain that the writers are so in love with that they can’t bear to get of, no matter how stupid it ends up making their characters look.
It makes sense to have a crossover villain and that gives a reason why there will be crossovers between the shows.However this doesn’t mean that the character of Malcolm will be used all the time.For example he could do something evil on one of the shows which causes repercussions on the other and results in crossovers.
A series regular on 3 shows? How is that even possible?
It does sound logistically challenging. I would assume it only means he gets paid as a regular for episodes he does appear in and he (and Wentworth Miller) are guaranteed x number of episodes. I doubt that either actor will appear in 22 episodes per season.
A regular means there’s a minimum of 13 episodes in a 22/23 episode season. That’s all it means.
Seriously? Don’t get me wrong, I really like John, but I was really hoping TPTB would either kill Malcolm off or reduce his role in Season 5.
meant as no disrespect to john, but really, no one wants merlyn as a regular on all those shows.
Including Supergirl?
So that’s how they’re going to make Arrow great again: by making other shows as bad as Arrow.
Are they going to make every actor from the 4 shows have this same contract, and instead of 4 different shows, we have a 4-nights-a-week DC soap – ‘on tonights episode Green Arrow and The Flash fight it out over Felicity, but they find out she has an evil twin,who kidnapped and replaced her 6 months earlier!!’ Names for the show, anyone….
Don’t be absurd. Even CW can’t afford that many regulars across all 4 shows.
It’s a good job im joking around then really, isnt it?!
I hate Malcolm Meryln, I don’t want him to take up screen time on other dc shows. Why is this needed??
So what’s he gonna do on supergirl or on legends?
I admire John Barrowman as an actor, but the Malcolm Merlin character is beyond aggravating and only makes the Arrow team look even more inept and hypocritical because of this pointless insistence on keeping him around. I’m sick of his twisted relationship with Thea, I’m sick of Oliver’s ‘reasons’ for not offing him, and I’m sick of the writers’ ridiculously contrived and asinine explanation for keeping his character around. Oy Vey
Does this include Supergirl too?
The contract covers any Berlanti-produced CW/DC series. The exact ones he actually, eventually appears on is, of course, “TBD.”