Once he was Superman. Now he's The Atom. Brandon Routh, who took the lead in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns in 2006, is joining The CW TV series Arrow for its third season, in the recurring role of one Ray Palmer{
In the original DC comics, Palmer was a professor of physics who developed a shrinking apparatus using matter from a white dwarf star. Naturally he ended up using it on himself (to escape a spelunking tragedy - damn that spelunking!) and was left with the permanent ability to reduce his size to a subatomic level. Accepting his new-found power, he decided to use it for superheroic good guy antics.
His role in Arrow has been described as "an unrivalled scientist and inventor who will play an unexpected role in [Green Arrow] Oliver Queen's life". He's to be the new owner of Queen Consolidated, with a mysterious agenda in the Applied Science division... White dwarf matter has not yet been mentioned.
Superman Returns didn't manage to generate any sequels, so Routh only got to wear the cape once. He's hardly been idle since that disappointment, for example with roles for Kevin Smith and Edgar Wright, as well as on TV's Chuck. But a return to the DC universe for another crack at an ongoing hero was clearly tempting. We wonder whether his history will be slyly joked about within the Arrow show...
DC seem to be keeping their TV and film properties separate for the time being, so it's unlikely at this stage that Routh's Atom could share the screen with Henry Cavill's current Supes incarnation. Marvel, meanwhile, must be grinding their teeth that DC have beaten the troubled **Ant-Man to the screen with another high-profile shrinking superhero.
Arrow's third season starts in the States in October. Expect a presence at Comic-Con later this month.