‘Arrow’ Star Stephen Amell Responds to Nora Fries Casting

On Friday, The CW announced the casting of Cassandra Jean Amell as Nora Fries for December’s Arrowverse crossover. Now, her husband and Arrow star Stephen Amell is responding to the announcement.

In a post to Twitter last night, Amell may have been light on words but he did share a moving GIF of Nora from Batman: The Animated series where the character originated. You can check out the post below.

As you can see in the post, the GIF shows a woman (Nora) in a cryogenic tube before the villain Mr. Freeze, aka Victor Fries, reaches out and touches it. The villain’s face softens into sadness in the moment.

While the post offers no clarification about how Nora will be presented in the crossover, it does help to give those who might be unfamiliar with the character a bit of insight into her story. Nora Fries was one of the characters originally created for Batman: The Animated Series. In the episode “Heart of Ice” — an episode that is one of the most critically acclaimed episodes of the series’ entire run — Nora gave Mr. Freeze the relatable, humanizing backstory the character was lacking. In the story Nora was terminally ill and her husband, who was not yet a villain, cryogenically froze her while he searched for a life-saving cure. However, her cryo-tube was shut down by GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle, condemning Nora to death. In a related series of events, Victor becomes Mr. Freeze, determined to destroy Boyle and anyone who gets in the way of his efforts.

Prior to “Heart of Ice”, Mr. Freeze had no humanity in his backstory so Nora’s story was soon added to the comics as well as subsequent adaptations. Versions of the Nora-centric backstory has also found its way outside of the comics and animation. The story was adapted for 1997’s Batman & Robin and, more recently, the character of Nora was played by Kristen Hager on Fox’s Gotham. By bringing Nora to the Arrowverse it marks one of the rare occasions where Gotham and the Arrowverse have shared a version of a character, though that could be a result of both Gotham coming to an end this season as well as The CW developing their own Batwoman series. As Mr. Freeze is primarily a Gotham-based character and Batwoman is a Gotham-based hero, it makes sense that the Arrowverse would start to incorporate other characters with Gotham-based histories, such as Nora.

Interestingly, the addition of Cassandra Jean as Nora Fries in the Arrowverse marks at least the third time the spouses of Arrowverse actors have themselves joined the cast in some fashion. The Flash‘s first Firestorm, Robbie Amell’s wife Italia Ricci appeared as the villain Siobhan Smythe/Silver Banshee on Supergirl (though they were not married at the time) while on Legends of Tomorrow, Brandon Routh’s (Ray Palmer/The Atom) wife Courtney Ford plays Nora Darhk.

Are you excited for Nora Fries’ arrival in the Arrowverse? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The currently untitled Arrowverse crossover event will kick off on Sunday, December 9th on The Flash at 8/7c. It continues on Arrow on Monday, December 10th at 8/7c and concludes on Supergirl on Tuesday, December 11th, also at 8/7c.