Big things are happening in Star City this year — but as fans start to think about Arrow season 6, one of the big questions is: what will they do to replace the flashbacks?
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Not all of that time will go to anything in particular, of course: freeing themselves from the five-year flashback device will allow the writers to spend more time and energy investing in whatever narrative is driving the season at the moment.
Still, we have to assume that there will be something to take mental energy each episode spent hanging around “five years ago.”
The likelihood that somewhere along the line it’s likely Arrow will bring in a new DC character or two to help flesh out the upcoming stories on the show, and so we have assembled a list of five DC characters we’d like to see reimagined for the world of Arrow.
You can check them out below.
Arrow returns in October and will air at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Wednesday nights on The CW.
Connor Hawke
Connor Hawke could be an interesting addition to the story, especially since we originally assumed he would be…well, the kid that eventually turned out to be William, and William apparently will play a major role in season 6.
Fans have seen a version of Connor in the future (on Legends of Tomorrow), where he was the son of John Diggle who used a different name and was inspired by Oliver but not related to him.
Could we see a version of Connor come to the present-day Arrowverse and really mess with some of the dynamics we have emerging right now, as Oliver becomes more of a father figure to his son and Team Arrow grapples with what that means?
…Well, probably not. But it could be pretty cool to see it play out!
The Question
Here we go again!
From the first season of the series, there have been rumors that Vic Sage — The Question — could appear on the show.
Repeated mentions of “Hub City” have pushed that idea along, even at times when DC’s version of The Question was an odd mystical entity rather than the grimy, street-level vigilante who inspired Watchmen‘s Rorschach.
He feels like a character who would fit in well on this show — perhaps later in this season or even next year, once the new Team Arrow recruits have worked out some of their kinks, since Vic isn’t the kind of character we can see suffering Wild Dog gladly.
Midnighter
Right now, Midnighter is enjoying as much popularity as he has had since he was first created, so what better time for DC to try and bring him to TV?
While up to now, Oliver Queen has stood in for the Dark Knight on a number of occasions, Midnighter was created as a stand-in for Batman in a Brand-X Justice League and would give them a chance to make Oliver more likable — without having to do too much to him.
Midnighter, after all, is more Batman than The Arrow, so he could be so driven and obsessed that even Oliver sees it isn’t safe.
It would also give them an opportunity to feature a prominent and badass LGBT character on the show — something that Arrow has done pretty well so far with Sara Lance and Nyssa Raatko.
Blue Beetle
If we had to pick a “most likely to appear” based solely on previous references and episodes, this would be your guy.
Kord Technologies have appeared in nearly every season of Arrow, and Felicity Smoak even briefly worked there.
There was also that thing where Ted Kord was supposed to come to Arrow, before last-minute changes at DC Entertainment led to the show making him Ray Palmer instead.
Those last-minute changes, while never confirmed, are generally thought to have been connected to the long-rumored (and now confirmed) Booster Gold movie, in which his best pal Ted “Blue Beetle” Kord seemed likely to appear. If the powers that be at Warner Bros. should decide to use the modern day Blue Beetle, though — and thus tie into notalgia for Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Young Justice as well as providing the DC Extended Universe with another diverse face for its lineup — Ted might free up as Jaime Reyes appeared alongside Booster on the big screen.
Travis Morgan
Look, Warlord might seem like an odd fit for a list like this, but there’s a reason behind it.
Back when the series first started, we talked about the idea of Smallville‘s Green Arrow, Justin Hartley, playing Morgan. It would still be a fun bit.
“We have some funny ideas for how to [bring in Hartley],” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg told Green Arrow TV at the time. “More than anything, Justin has been so amazing and so supportive of this. Neither of us really knew him before we worked on this pilot. We actually met him during pilot season, and he’s just been so cool, saying ‘I’m happy for you guys,’ so great… and he and Stephen have actually developed a nice friendship. So, we hope, in the same way that in the Superman movies, you’d see actors from previous incarnations joined in some way… if there’s an opportunity down the road for Justin to play with us, that would be great.”
Warlord, created by Mike Grell, had he same body type, facial shape and hair structure as Green Arrow, whose comic Grell would work on following his run on Warlord. As such, there ws an issue of Green Arrow where Morgan showed up in Star City, only to find himself constantly accosted by people mistaking him for the hero.
Here’s how Grell described the creative process for the story, during our Creation Conversations interview with him about Warlord and his villain Deimos:
You know how that came about? That story was [artist] Dan Jurgens’ idea. He just wanted to do a story that featured both characters because he got his break on The Warlord and of course followed me onto Green Arrow. And I put my foot down. Mike Golden called me up and said, “Dan wants to do a crossover” and I said, “Oh, no, no, no. No way.” Because I always fought like hell to keep The Warlord separate from the DC Universe.
The same with Green Arrow — I took him as far out of the DC Universe as possible. And I didn’t want to do this silly crossover thing, and Golden said, “Well, look at it this way: It’s all predicated on the well-known fact that you only know how to draw one face.” That was it. I laughed my ass off, and I said “fine.”
And that’s how I wrote that story: There’s a knock on Oliver Queen’s door, he opens the door and there stands Travis Morgan, who punches him square in the jaw because he’s been in Seattle for three days and ever since he’s arrived, people have been trying to kill him thinking that he’s Oliver Queen. He goes, “Whatever you’re doing to piss people off, cut it out!”
