This fall, The CW is bringing us a new look at DC’s Green Arrow. The playboy turned crime-fighting archer will receive a new origin story, along with a rather complicated family life.
The show is slated to focus on the family dynamic of that rarest of superheroes who is not a mysterious orphan. Oliver Queen, Green Arrow’s secret identity, has a mother and brother at home, and a father who is possibly still missing at sea, where Oliver himself was rescued from a deserted island.
A couple weeks back we got a look at the casting sheet, and it showed us just how important Oliver’s family is going to be to the story. Now, we’re getting word of whose filling some of those roles.
First, Oliver Queen himself has been cast. We’re getting Stephen Amell as the iconic archer. You might recognize him as an occasional guest star on a couple episodes of The Vampire Dairies, and he’s been around a few other television shows the past few years, but he’s mostly unknown, and this will be, by far, his most visible role to date.
David Ramsey – he’s
been a little bit more visible as Anton Briggs on Dexter – will play John Diggle, a character created specifically for the show, likely to be a confidant for Oliver while his relationship with his real partner (in the comics anyway) Laurel Lance, who eventually fights crime at his side as the Black Canary, takes a season or two to develop.
Laurel is going to be played by Katie Cassidy. Her you’ve surely seen if you watch the CW regularly, as she’s no stranger to the network. If nothing else, you’ll recognize her as the actress to play the second incarnation of the demon Ruby on Supernatural.
Finally, we’ll have veteran actress Susanna Thompson in the role of Moira Queen, Oliver’s mother, who may be scheming and/or hoping for the death of her husband out at sea. From the character descriptions, there is the chance that this character will be the true villain of the series.
That just leaves the hot younger sister and the best friend of the protagonist yet to be cast, and we’ll have the whole first line.
Amell is a bit of an unknown quantity, I think, not having done enough to really prove himself, but the rest of the cast seems to be shaping up nicely.
No production or release details have yet been announced for Arrow.
