CW's Arrow Gets an Extended Preview

CW has released an extended preview trailer for Arrow, the network's super-spy update of DC Comics' Green Arrow, which was made available at TV Line earlier today. The extended preview gives non-readers a primer on Oliver Queen's years-long shipwrecked exile and unlikely return, before beginning to tease just a little of the web of conspiracy that draws this Jason Bourne-inspired take on Green Arrow to leap into action. "The Oliver you lost may not be the one you found," says actor Stephen Amell's voice over footage of the hero leaping over a barbed-wire fence to set up his new Batcave equivalent. He's a brooding and understated guy, for a superhero, but the footage is mostly new, looking good and largely plot- and character-driven as opposed to the all-action approach taken by the last trailer. We also get a good look at what appears to be Laurel (Black Canary) Lance for the first time, in an intriguing little plot twist, as well as a look (again) at Oliver's little black book, full of criminal names; it feels a little familiar to those of us who have been watching ABC's hit Revenge. Last and best, we get teased with a quick image of a mask that unmistakably belongs to Deathstroke the Terminator, a DC Comics staple since the 1980s and a perfect fit for this new iteration of Green Arrow. The show has just the right combination of the cool, the original and the oddly familiar to be a sustainable success. That would transform a character who can hardly sell the few thousand copies it takes to support his own monthly comic into a bona fide TV success, twice over when you count his Smallville popularity, for the Warner-owned CW, which might very well help bubble projects like the rumored Deadman and Booster Gold TV series find their footing. It could also help improve the odds of an eventual Green Arrow movie, or even cast some doubt on the editorial oversight at DC who can't seem to make the character work for them. Arrow will begin airing on CW in the fall.