Originally Posted by
Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Brandon Routh was originally brought in to play Ted Kord/Blue Beetle. From the beginning, he was always written more like Ted than Ray Palmer -- genius industrialist who ends us losing his company, well-intentioned, occasionally goofy superhero with an inferiority complex that gets in his way. But the Arrow writers found out they didn't have permission to use Ted, so he was hastily rewritten as Ray Palmer, despite always behaving a lot more like Ted.
So hopefully it's not too late, all these years later!