Arrow Casts Fringe's Seth Gabel As Its Big Bad

Seth Gabel, who has worked with Arrow executive producer Greg Berlanti in the past on Dirty Sexy Money and established his geek cred with Fringe, will join the cast of the Arrow as the first season's "big bad," TV Line reports. Based on the DC Comics supervillain Count Vertigo, the as-yet-unnamed character will be a "scary and nightmarish" character who showrunners say will be the most dangerous villain Oliver has yet faced. The character, who will be introduced in early 2013 during the second half of the show's freshman season, will be selling a product called Vertigo, meaning that it's widely believed he'll retain some semblance of his powers. One has to wonder whether Miraclo can be far behind. Originally introduced as a villain in the late '70s, Vertigo has menaced any number of DC characters during his time as a villain but has spent quite a lot of time as part of the Suicide Squad with Arrow's villain from earlier in the season, Deadshot. Prior to the New 52 reboot, Vertigo had been involved at one point with Checkmate, a super-spy organization with ties to characters like Ted Kord/Blue Beetle, Maxwell Lord, Amanda Waller and Manhunter–all of whom have been rumored as potential DC Universe guests stars on Arrow. The sheer number of familiar faces from DC's past have somewhat obscured those early interviews, in which showrunners described Arrow as a kind of Jason Bourne/James Bond-style high-tech revenge/spy thriller with a little archery tossed in, but the involvement of Checkmate could re-establish that vision of the series quickly.