Arrow‘s midseason finale came with a shocking reveal for fans. The new Green Arrow on the streets of Star City is none other than Emiko Queen, Oliver’s secret sister. Now, ahead of the show’s midseason premiere on Monday, showrunner Beth Schwartz is opening up about how the character fits into the story.
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In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Schwartz explained that fans will get to know a lot more about Emiko — from her parentage to her mission.
“We’re gonna really be seeing a lot from her perspective,” Schwartz said. “We have a really cool, fun opening where we learn about her mission [and] why she’s taken up the Green Arrow suit. We’ll explain in this episode who her parents are.”
For fans of the comic books, it will be interesting to see how the show adapts Emiko. In comics, Emiko is the daughter of Robert Queen and Shado. Debuting during Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino’s New 52 Green Arrow run, Emiko is just a teen. Raised by Simon Lacroix/Komodo after he kidnapped her as an infant, Emiko was raised as an assassin. She ultimately ends up discovering the truth of her parentage, killing Komodo, and becomes Oliver’s sidekick, Red Arrow. Considering that Shado has already been utilized by the series — as younger character who was a love interest for Oliver during his time on Lian Yu — it will be interesting to see what changes they make to the character for the series.
It’s also interesting that Emiko’s arrival comes almost a year after the departure of Oliver’s other half-sister, Thea Queen (Willa Holland). However, according to Schwartz, replacing Thea was never a motivation.
“The intention wasn’t to replace Thea, or once one sister left to introduce a new sister,” Schwartz said. “We were just excited about this character from the comic books, and we just felt like it was time to bring her into the fold. “[The fact that] Queen secrets are still happening from the grave, I thought, was really interesting, and that there was a whole hidden life that Oliver didn’t know about.”
Oliver may not have known about Emiko, but that doesn’t mean the two characters don’t have things in common. Schwartz said that Emiko is quite a bit like Oliver.
“She is very similar to Oliver, which is fun and different, obviously, from Thea as well, who had her own sort of thing going,” Schwartz said. “But we kind of love making those parallels of her to Oliver.”
You can check out the synopsis for “My Name is Emiko Queen” below.
OLIVER RETURNS TO HIS REGULAR LIFE IN STAR CITY
Oliver (Stephen Amell) is ready to get back to work with the SCPD and to focus on his marriage with Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards). However, when Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) tasks Oliver with tracking the new Green Arrow (Sea Shimooka) things take a surprising turn. Meanwhile, Diggle (David Ramsey) and Lyla (guest star Audrey Marie Anderson) must answer to ARGUS about Diaz (Kirk Acevedo).
Andi Armaganian directed the episode written by Benjamin Raab & Deric A. Hughes.
Arrow airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.
