PaleyFest Interview: Greg Berlanti Talks Arrow Mythology, Tomorrow People & The Return Of Seth Gabel

Last night, The Paley Center for Media hosted a panel and Q&A discussion for The CW series Arrow, complete with appearances by cast and crew members from the show. While KSiteTV has our own Arrow portal site, we figured we’d share our chat with the show’s Executive Producer, Greg Berlanti, from the press line here on the parent site to give it the most exposure… that, and Berlanti talks about a highly anticipated new TV project of his, The Tomorrow People revival, which is shooting soon, also for The CW.

Only 16 episodes in and Arrow has already introduced some majorly big characters from the Green Arrow mythology, like Roy Harper and Deathstroke. Was that always the intention?

Maybe not as quickly as we have. I think when what we started to realize early on, in those first seven or eight episodes, was “wow. Let’s just start populating the world.” You wouldn’t hold back if it was really New York City, if these characters were really weaving in and out, if we we were telling some kind of story like that. It felt like a false belief that we were keeping things contained, and it didn’t really need to be contained, and then how many other great ways we can twist and turn the characters after that. So that was the hope.

Our questions to Mr. Berlanti are posted in bold; his answers are not.

What will happen when Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) returns to the show?

One of the bigger storylines we have coming up for him is his introduction to the Arrow, and them crossing paths for the first time. That’ll be exciting.

Can you tease any villains who might be returning by season’s end?

I’m a big Seth Gabel fan, so we do see Vertigo again.

You’ve got another pilot for The CW coming up, The Tomorrow People, starring Stephen Amell’s cousin Robbie Amell. Can you talk about working with the heroic genre and how it might be compared to or different from Arrow?

I only cast Amells now! I’m not going to do another show until they raise another child.

When Tomorrow People was created in England, it was almost created as a kids’ Doctor Who. So it’s a little bit more sci-fi, and whereas this has the DNA of the comic books and all of those things we read growing up, the Tomorrow People kind of has more of its roots in the DNA of the sci-fi shows.

Like Arrow, might you bring in parts of the mythology in the same way?

Absolutely. Because that mythology was not quite as fleshed out as it would be in a comic book, and less arcane, you have to twist it in a different way or use it in a different way. We have odes to what were some of my favorite characters from the original series.

What can you tease about “The Huntress Returns” episode of Arrow that airs March 20?

Obviously there are still some feelings between her and Oliver that need to be worked out. Also, there is a debt that she really wants to take care of with her dad, and she’s as dangerous as ever, if not more so.

We have some more Arrow interviews coming up, so be sure to follow our Arrow Twitter feed, @GreenArrowTV, for updates on when they come! Thanks again to Mr. Berlanti and the Paley Center for making this interview happen.