'Arrow': Who Is Dr. Will Magnus?

Tonight on Arrow, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and Alena (Kacey Rohl) were discussing their future career prospects, and one name came up a couple of times: Doctor Will Magnus. Fans of the comic books will recognize the name easily, due to his long-running ties with one of the DC Universe's most unique super-teams. Some live-action fans might even remember that Magnus was among the various DC Comics characters briefly rumored to be played by Scoot McNairy in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Those rumors found more purchase because around that same time, reports suggested that DC and Men in Black producer Barry Sonnenfeld might be developing a Metal Men movie.

The Metal Men are autonomous robots who are each made up entirely of, and attain personalities related to, a single metal. Platinum, Gold, Iron, Lead, Mercury, and Tin make up the team. Platinum is an interesting one to feature, as she's the lone female of the group, and has even had romantic interest in their creator. That owner? Magnus -- which is, pretty clearly, the reason that Felicity would refer to him as a leading figure in robotics. It is possible that Magnus found renewed interest in robotics following the events of the "Elseworlds" crossover, in which Earth-1 was attacked by Amazo, an android with the powers of the combined heroes he faced (in that case, Superman, Supergirl, Green Arrow, The Flash, and others).

In the comics, Magnus has ties to the Time Masters, which led ComicBook.com to briefly assume that an innocuous Easter egg featuring (the metal, not the character) platinum on a magazine cover might tie Magnus to DC's Legends of Tomorrow early in its run. With Felicty Smoak leaving the show at the end of season seven and the series itself continuing on to season eight, a reference to a wealthy and brilliant DC character in (roughly) her field is likely enough to get a lot of fans talking and speculating -- not just about whether Felicity might leave to go work for Magnus...but about whether, if she does, any potential season eight appearance by the main character's wife might actually provide fans with a tease about yet more DC superheroes in the Arrowverse.

Arrow airs Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following episodes of DC's Legends of Tomorrow on The CW.

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