Arrow Showrunner Marc Guggenheim Explains The Lazarus Pit

When Ra's al Ghul first appeared on Arrow, there was a fair amount of fan speculation about whether or not we would see the Lazarus Pit, and some of the more mystical trappings of the character.

While Batman Begins had steered clear of those elements of Ra's al Ghul, it seemed there was a shot for even the grounded-and-gritty Arrow to pursue them. After all, there had long been rumors that John Barrowman's Malcolm Merlyn came back from the dead at the end of Season One by somehow being immersed in the Pit's waters, seemingly bolstered by a green-colored vial on a necklace he was seen wearing.

"It was just a question of, what version of Ra's do we want to put on the show?" showrunner Marc Guggenheim told reporters at a roundtable on Friday. "The one thing that we were dead set against, at the beginning, was making it too similar to the Ra's in the Dark Knight movies. We're all comic book fans, and we certainly recognize the story potential of the Lazarus Pit and the interesting nature of it. We didn't really have any long, protracted discussions of, 'Is this where we want to go?' We instinctively had a hunger for it."

And it's a hunger that won't be immediately satisfied. Guggenheim said that while the long-simmering relationship issues betweenThea and Malcolm will have some kind of resolution by the end of Season Three, "Everything in the show has consequences, and that's something we've been consistent about. It's something you will continue to see not just through the end of season three, but into season four."

Arrow airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.