Arrow on a Dhark mission

Arrow is an American television series developed by writer/producers Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg. It is based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, a costumed crime-fighter created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp. It premiered in North America on The CW on October 10, 2012, with international broadcasting taking place in late 2012. In August 2015, an animated spin-off, Vixen, was released, while a second live-action spin-off, Legends of Tomorrow, is currently in development.

After a violent shipwreck, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen [played by Stephen Amell] was missing and presumed dead for five years before being discovered alive on a remote island in the Pacific. He returned home to Starling City, bent on righting the wrongs of his family and fighting injustice. In order to do this, Queen created the persona of the Arrow and allied himself with former military man John Diggle [David Ramsey] and computer-science expert Felicity Smoak [Emily Bett Rickards], while keeping his secret from those closest to him.

Will Oliver feel any regret or remorse for placing Malcolm Merlyn as the head of the League Of Assassins?

In the first three episodes, I haven’t seen any interaction in the scripts that would allow that to play out yet. I don’t think that this was a bargain that Oliver enjoyed making with Malcolm, just like taking Diggle’s wife and endangering their child wasn’t something that he enjoyed doing – but he did it because, in his mind, the end justified the means in his mind.

Diggle and Oliver’s relationship was slightly repaired in the Season Three finale. Where do we find them when they see each other again in Season Four?

It’s very much strained. There are certain things that you can do that upset someone, but then there are certain lines that you cross that you can never come back from. You see that in real life and you see that this season with Oliver and Diggle’s relationship. Will it ever be the same? I don’t know. Even if they get back to 99 per cent of where they were before, there’s always going to be that one inkling in the back of Diggle’s head about what Oliver did. I don’t think Oliver’s asking for forgiveness – but if they’re going to work together again, they’re going to need to be able to trust one another.

In Season Two, it was revealed that Oliver had a secret child – but audiences saw a glimpse of the baby mama in The Flashcrossover last season. Would you like to see that storyline play out this year?

I do. With me personally being a dad, I would love to see how Oliver deals with having a kid. Obviously, Oliver’s experience is going to be very different to my experience – but I think that the storyline definitely deserves further attention. One of the big tenets of [executive producer] Greg Berlanti is: you don’t introduce something to the audience and you don’t tease it if you’re not going to follow through in some way, shape or form. For those reasons, I think it’s a safe bet that Oliver will find out about his child at some point.

In the last few years, the DC television universe has expanded rapidly. How comfortably do you feel in this group of superheroes?

I’m fine with it. It’s great. I just finished filming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in New York and I was very much a passenger on that train as opposed to driving it. When I get a chance to go over and play on The Flash or when we get over to Legends Of Tomorrow, if that happens, I really enjoy being a supporting player and supporting those shows – and bringing in new elements. It’s a refreshing thing to do in the middle of a long season.

Arrow executive producer Andrew Kreisberg has hinted that Legends Of Tomorrow and Arrow will interact. Do you hope that happens?

It’s too far down the road to comment really. I know that what we’re going to do in the first part of this season is hopefully build out a lot of those characters from both Arrow and The Flash. I know that Brandon Routh [who plays Ray Palmer/The Atom] started on our show, but there are other characters on Legends like Firestorm, Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Hawkgirl… God knows where they all come from! It will be interesting to find out.

Have you ever felt the Arrow comic book stopped you from taking the character where you wanted to go?

Never. I read the comics very sparingly and I completely trust in the character that we’ve built. I play an Oliver Queen with his own idiosyncrasies. Ben Affleck isn’t going to do an impersonation of Christian Bale [as Batman]. Henry Cavill didn’t do an impersonation of Christopher Reeve [as Superman]. Jared Leto’s not going to do an impersonation of Heath Ledger [as the Joker] and Heath didn’t do an impersonation of Jack Nicholson. My Arrow is my Arrow, the comic’s Arrow is the comic’s Arrow. The fact that the comic’s Arrow looks like me is cool, but they can continue to write him however they want.