Arrow Casting Four New Roles — Including Blue Beetle?

TVLine has the character descriptions, which we’ve pasted below, and a few more details at their site. Beneath the descriptions are our thoughts on the characters and how they might tie to the larger DC Universe.

‘DANIEL’ | Though Daniel could be a fake name to throw off spoilerholics, this 20something gent — a major recurring character for Season 3 — is a handsome, enigmatic and highly intelligent entrepreneur developing groundbreaking technology. (Picture a business magnate in Ryan Gosling’s body.) Though exuding charm and confidence in public, he privately harbors a tragic past that will drive him to become a tech-powered superhero. Watch for this formidable fella to be a love interest for Felicity and a rival of Oliver’s – both personally and professionally.

‘SETH’ | A well-educated criminal with grand ambitions and a knack for chemistry, this potentially recurring character gains power over his enemies by exposing them to a drug that drains their willpower. Oh, and he is very much a physical match for The Arrow.

TOSHI | Majorly recurring in (at least) the Hong Kong flashbacks, Toshi will serve as Oliver’s teacher and handler, and eventually become a friend. A well-trained operative, skilled in weaponry, combat and intelligence gathering, he is also a devoted father and husband.

AKIKO | Toshi’s wife is another of Oliver’s Hong Kong caretakers, and is herself highly skilled in martial arts.

Given the fact that we’ve seen more than one reference to Kord Omniversal, it doesn’t seem like a stretch to suggest that Daniel could be Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle.

Ted had a brief but frequently-referenced relationship with Barbara Gordon, currently Batgirl but at the time called Oracle. During that time, Oracle was the wheelchair-bound super-hacker of the DC Universe, who had ties to both the Birds of Prey and the Suicide Squad. Many fans have noted that Felicity would be an ideal candidate to sit in for Oracle in any potential Birds of Prey stories coming up, since the likelihood of getting Batgirl/Barbara is small, especially with Gotham on the air.

The “groundbreaking technology” and “tech-driven superhero” both sound like something that could easily describe Ted, as does the very broad strokes of the character description, but there’s one thing that particularly jumps out at us…

Yeah, as in, Daniel Garrett, the Golden Age Blue Beetle. So they’re hiding the Blue Beetle’s identity for casting reasons…by acting as though they’re casting the [other] Blue Beetle.

Akiko, meanwhile, could turn out to be an Arrowverse version of Lady Shiva, who has connections to the League of Assassins and is one of a number of DC Universe characters fans have been expecting to turn up eventually.

Andy from The Flash Podcast (I was their guest this week! Check it out!) just offered up this tweet from The Flash Executive Producer and DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, too:

Another option might be Katana, who had a new series launch around the same time as Justice League of America’s Vibe (and then Vibe was announced as a regular on The Flash).

It would be surprising if Seth wasn’t a DC villain, too, although the power set doesn’t immediately sound familiar. Maybe a reimagining of an existing villain to suit the Arrowverse?

Toshi is likely to be an original character; he sounds a bit like he might be the Diggle of the flashback sequences and help to inform why Oliver sought out an assistant like John so soon after beginning his one-man war.

Arrow returns in the fall, but expect more details on these as Comic Con International: San Diego draws closer.