Exclusive Interview: Marc Guggenheim on the Arrowverse and ‘Percy Jackson’
The Arrowverse was a key part of Motor City Comic Con in November, and I got the chance to catch up with the visionary behind the interconnected television universe! Marc Guggenheim was Arrow’s showrunner for almost the entire series, introducing many of the building blocks that supported several spinoff series. He also oversaw the iconic crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, the most ambitious Arrowverse project ever and the biggest live-action DC universe crossover to date.
As a huge fan of the Arrowverse, I jumped at the chance to talk to Marc Guggenheim about his work – including his script for the Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters film!
[Editor’s note: quotes have been edited slightly for clarity.]
Marc Guggenheim on Arrowverse cameos
Uday Kataria: I was just in the Arrow panel. You guys have spoken about some behind the scenes issues with bringing certain characters to screen. I was wondering if that also applied to any storylines? Were there any storylines for Arrow or the other shows that you really wanted to explore but just couldn’t because of what was going on with the films at the time?
Marc Guggenheim: Not that I can recall. Not that I can recall, because the truth is, with very few exceptions, we didn’t really do the comic book storylines. We kind of did our own thing. So that didn’t really come up that much.
UK: I remember hearing that the Suicide Squad storyline in Arrow didn’t fully pan out. Was there more planned for those characters?
MG: Well, there was. The funny thing about the Suicide Squad was, first they asked us to do the Suicide Squad. They said, ‘Have you guys considered, would you consider doing the Suicide Squad in Arrow?’ And we said, ‘Yeah, great.’ And then we did it, and we brought the Suicide Squad back, and they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re doing a Suicide Squad movie. So could you kill them all off?’ That was often the case, where one day, someone would be off limits, the other day they’d say we could use them and the reverse was also true. That’s one of the reasons why Deathstroke, Manu Bennett’s character, came in and out of the series, because there were moments when DC said yes, and there are moments when DC said no.
UK: That’s really interesting. I didn’t realize they asked you guys to include them in the first place.
MG: Oh yeah.
UK: I love Harley Quinn, and there was that little Harley Quinn tease in season 2.
MG: Yes.
UK: Did you guys want to use her as a character, or was it always just a little cameo?
MG: We would have loved to use her as a character, but we knew that she’d be off limits. In fact, we got into a little bit of trouble with that voice cameo.
UK: Oh, really? It was such a perfect little thing. As a fan, I really enjoyed it.
MG: A lot of those perfect little things were us just asking for forgiveness instead of permission.
UK: That makes sense. And then, on the cameo track, I know not everyone that you wanted to get for Crisis on Infinite Earths worked out.
MG: Pretty much got everybody. Pretty much. The only person that we didn’t get who I wanted was, I wanted to repurpose B-roll from the Green Lantern movie, and have Ryan Reynolds in it. And Ryan, you know, never got back to us, so… But that was the only thing that really didn’t pan out.
UK: Okay, interesting. I was wondering where Lynda Carter was. Did you guys try talking to her to get her in as Wonder Woman?
MG: We didn’t try talking to her because DC told us no.
UK: Oh, okay.
On Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
UK: Finally, I have a non-DC question, about Percy Jackson.
MG: Oh, sure.
UK: You wrote the screenplay for the Sea of Monsters movie, right? I’m a big Percy Jackson fan. I know the movies took some liberties from the books, but I thought Sea of Monsters was pretty fun because it changed up stuff from the book, but it made for a very enjoyable movie.
MG: Thank you.
UK: Were you trying to keep the screenplay really close to the book, or was the studio…
MG: So, I’ll tell you what happened. They had two Academy Award-winning writers write the first draft, and it was incredibly faithful to the book. And Tom Rothman, the head of 20th [Century Fox] at the time, was like, ‘This isn’t a movie’, you know, because it was written for a different medium. There [were] a lot of things that just simply didn’t work in a two-hour film. And what happened was they brought me in, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I see the point.’ So my whole goal wasn’t to change things just to change them, it was to adhere to the spirit of the book really closely, but do it in a way that actually worked for a two-hour film.
UK: That makes sense, because I was surprised in the movie that Kronos came to life at the end, but he made for a very nice third act battle, so I wasn’t upset that it was different from the book. I thought it was fun.
MG: My goal, honestly, with Percy, was to write it as if the first movie never took place and just provide the Percy fans not an adaptation of one book, but rather a really good Percy Jackson story from beginning, middle, and end.
UK: That’s a great philosophy. Was it your idea to make Annabeth blonde again?
MG: No, no, that wasn’t my call. I want to say that that was the director Thor Freudenthal’s call.
UK: And then finally, are you going to watch the new [Percy Jackson and the Olympians] season? Because they’re adapting Sea of Monsters now for TV.
MG: Yeah, I probably won’t. I don’t like, you know, seeing other people do stuff I’ve worked on before. It’s not enjoyable to me.
UK: Yeah, it’s probably a weird feeling.
MG: Yeah.
UK: Sorry, one last [question] about Percy Jackson. Were you ever involved with a potential third movie, with a Titan’s Curse movie?
MG: No, no. You know, it’s funny. We just never moved forward with a third film. It just never took place.
UK: It’s a shame, because I thought Sea of Monsters was better than the first movie. So I was hoping that they could at least continue in that vein.
MG: Yeah, I was pleased with the way that film had turned out, and I love the cast. I thought they were great casting and everything. It’s a shame that it just didn’t catch on.
UK: Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Have a great day.
MG: You too. Take care.
That’s it for my interview with Marc Guggenheim at Motor City Comic Con
I always love hearing about behind-the-scenes secrets, especially when it comes to a franchise as expansive as the Arrowverse! And with the season 2 premiere of Percy Jackson and the Olympians now available to stream on Disney+, it was great to hear a little bit about the writing process behind the 2013 Sea of Monsters movie.
Thank you to Marc Guggenheim for taking some time out of his day to chat with us about his work!
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