Arrow Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim Talks Tonight’s “Birds of Prey”

In tonight’s episode of Arrow, The Huntress returns for the first time in a year, still hunting her murderous father, and is caught between Arrow, Canary and the law when she takes a courtroom, including Laurel Lance, hostage en route to her revenge.Last week, Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim  joined ComicBook.com and a group of other reporters for a discussion about the episode.You can read some highlights from the conversation below.Arrow returns tonight at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.

This is obviously one of a number of episodes this season that revolved around characters other than Oliver. What was the thinking behind that?MG: We are very sensitive to the rhythms of the season and we sort of feel like each grouping of episodes has its own themes. We’re currently in the middle of a group of episodes that we call villain-focused or antagonist-focused but the truth is, it’s a shift away from Oliver. It’s not a permanent thing, it’s just a part of this batch of episodes. I would say that [“Deathstroke”] is extremely Oliver-centric. Similarly with [“The Man Under the Hood”]. I think we were just sort of taking opportunities to focus a little bit…I think in [“Birds of Prey”], Laurel and Sara get the focus. It was very much designed to be a Laurel and Sara episode using Helena as the fulcrum in that relationship. Episode 6 for us earlier in the year, where Diggle and Oliver and Felicity went to Russia, proved to us that we can do an episode that’s not entirely on Oliver’s back.I think whenever a show is — now we’re going into our third season — you’ve got to be able to mix things up a bit and keep the show from becoming formulaic. Is it a permanent thing? No. Is it something that we’ve now demonstrated an ability to do? Yeah — but always sort of in keeping with the rhythms of the individual season.

Might we see another Birds of Prey-centric series?I think anything is possible. Way above my pay grade. [Laughs] One of the things we would love to do at some point is do an episode where you’ve got Black Canary, Felicity, and the Huntress working together. That’s on our show bucket list.Guggenheim also reveals that he has talked to DC Comics about doing a Huntress comic book story exploring the year that was spent between [“The Huntress Returns” and “Birds of Prey”] – from her perspective, traveling the world and hunting for her father. You never know. All things are possible, as long as we’ve got Jessica’s willing participation.What about seeing one of the original Birds of Prey in Arrow?“We’re always talking about that. I think the fact that they cast John Wesley Shipp [in the Flash pilot], I think, sort of opens the door. I’ve always wanted to [have], say, that if they made a movie out of Oliver Queen’s life, and the actor Justin Hartley played Oliver Queen, that would be fun. But you never know.They are [different]. That’s the thing. Smallville and Birds of Prey and Arrow are all very, very, very different shows, and I think it’s always fun to do this sort of thing in a way that’s one for the fans. It’s like Sean Connery being Indiana Jones’ father. Like, of COURSE James Bond is going to be Indiana Jones’ father.Check back for more after the episode airs tonight; much of what Guggenheim and guest star de Gouw said was spoilery enough that we had to hold off on it until after tonight’s episode!