Arrow's Katrina Law Talks About Outraging Olicity Fans

While the most vocal elements of the Arrow fandom are deeply divided over the role "Olicity" can and should play in the series, most of the cast are close enough friends that the artificial conflicts set up by fans don't faze them at all.

Many of them are also convention veterans, who have a great deal of experience in dealing with fans -- and such is the case with Katrina Law, who plays Nyssa Raatko on the series (and also on an episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow this season).

Arrow had a panel at MCM Comic Con Expo in London, and Law talked about having a little bit of good-natured fun with the fans.

"One of my favorite things was when Nyssa came back on the scene and she kept calling Oliver 'husband.' And I knew online there was going to be this outrage. I kept getting these tweets being like 'No, stay away from him!' 'No, Olicity forever!' and I'd just be like 'bwahahaha.' Oh, no! Did she just say 'husband' again?! So that was a lot of fun."

To the surprise of nobody, the comments thread for the YouTube video embedded above is already full of people squabbling over it.

Earlier this week, series star Stephen Amell told Larry King that he thought the controversies were overblown, though, and represented only a small, vocal portion of the fans.

Over the last two seasons, Arrow has seen its audience deeply divided over the show's central romantic plot. Since Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak started actively courting one another, there has been a vocal contingent of fandom who have complained that the relationship has overwhelmed other aspects of the show.

For much of that time, there was an escalating online feud between Olicity "shippers" and fans who either wanted the romantic elements of the show played down, or who supported a relationship between Oliver and Laurel Lance -- who, as the series' Black Canary, is the TV analogue to Oliver's longtime love interest in the comics.

Frustration with both Olicity and with numerous other elements of the show -- including last year's characterization of Ra's al Ghul and the continued use of flashbacks at a point where a vocal contingent of fans no longer sees their purpose -- has driven an ongoing sense of frustration and negativity, especially on platforms like Twitter and Reddit.

(Note: controversy surrounding the Season Four finale, which aired Wednesday, was not directly addressed in the interview, which was filmed prior to the finale's airdate.)

Amell dismissed most of those complaints, telling Larry King that he believes most fans still enjoy television "the traditional way," meaning that they simply watch it and don't engage with other fans on social media. He called Twitter "overblown" and blamed its often-toxic environment on the fact that the platform allows users anonymity (unlike Facebook, LinkedIn, or other platforms which require a real name and/or a e-mail address).

Arrow will start production on the show's fifth season in July, with an eye toward an October premiere date. The show airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.