The Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) is hardly the only vigilante in town on Arrow these days. Along with his original team members, he now has four new recruits suiting up to save the city along with him. But in Wednesday night’s new episode, Oliver and the rest of his team are going to learn there is a new vigilante in Star City—and this one isn’t worried about holding back his killer instinct.
The CW’s comic book series is finally going to debut the iconic DC Comics character Vigilante in the aptly titled episode, “Vigilante.” When the bodies of two criminals are dropped at SCPD, the team is split about whether they should stop someone who is helping keep the city safe or let this new Vigilante keep on doing his work.
“‘Vigilante’ is another episode where it’s kind of Oliver holding up a mirror a little bit and seeing whether or not what he is doing is having an impact,” Amell told Nerdist on set in Vancouver. “And the thing that I like about the episode is that he learns that even if it’s not going as quickly as he wants, they really are on the right path. This isn’t the happiest that Oliver has ever been, but this is the most resolute and confident that he has been in his path. So that ‘Vigilante’ episode is another opportunity for him to learn that and become more resolute.”
Comic book fans know that the man behind the Vigilante mask (spoiler!) is District Attorney Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra)—at least in the comics—so does that mean that Oliver’s new work acquaintance has more in common with him than he thinks?
“I don’t want to say too much, because I’m actually really excited to surprise everybody,” Segarra explained to Nerdist on set. “We get to meet Vigilante. What’s been important to me is that when I watch something that’s based off literary script, I’m excited to see the parts that I imagined in my head the most. So when I started reading the Vigilante comics, there were of course parts that I was just, ‘Oh, my God, I hope I get to do this! Or I hope I get to go down on this road!’ And so far I’m getting to do a lot of those things. Episode 7, when you finally meet Vigilante, it’s a pretty exciting time, I think, for Chase and for the Vigilante.”
Another larger than life character viewers will finally get to meet in this episode is Konstantin Kovar (Dolph Lundgren) in Russia in the flashback storyline. This is the man Oliver has been trying to find and kill all season long, and he finally came face-to-face with the formidable government strongman at the very end of last week’s episode.
“It’s interesting watching someone that has cut their teeth in film walk onto a 23-episode-a-year television show with 14-hour days, because he just moves at his own pace,” Amell said with a laugh. “It’s not indulgent; when he came to set, he knew his stuff – not that I expected anything less – he was very respectful, he asked a lot of questions, he’d clearly done his homework, but it’s like … Dolph moves the way that he moves and he’s very thoughtful and contemplates his lines. He’s been great so far, but it’s a real change of pace. I do think that it would’ve been a missed opportunity in the last year of these flashbacks to not have a really worthy adversary, and we’ve found that in Dolph, which is why he’ll be around for a while. It’s been a blast to work with him – it’s been awesome.”
And speaking of different timelines, ever since Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) reset the timeline on Arrow spinoff series The Flash, little changes have trickled down to Arrow, like Diggle (David Ramsey) now having a baby son instead of a baby daughter. So far, Barry has only told Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) about this shocking change to Diggle’s life. Will Diggle ever learn about his lost child?
“I can tell you, it is important that he finds out,” Ramsey explained to Nerdist on set. “Secrets don’t say secrets for long, as you know. People say that all the time on this show and that’s true. I think his reaction is going to be a lot more compassionate. Diggle can’t miss something he’s never had. He’s being told he had a daughter but he doesn’t know he had a daughter so he can’t really miss it. So it’s less of what you think his reaction might be because we have the benefit of knowing he had a daughter because he doesn’t know. So I think his reaction is going to be a lot more compassionate toward Barry, who has this extraordinary power and just kind of recklessly used it.”
Who do you think is under the Vigilante mask? And should Diggle be upset with Barry for messing with his life on such a fundamental level? Tweet me your thoughts at @SydneyBucksbaum!
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
Images: The CW
