The Forgotten Characters of the Arrowverse

Recently, we talked about how anything as long-running and elaborate as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is almost bound to have some narrative loose ends and creative collateral damage. A fan on Reddit had put together a checklist of “forgotten” MCU characters — and we figured it might be fun to do the same thing with the closest DC equivalent, the Arrowverse. Yes, DC has a movie universe, too — but it is not nearly as old or anywhere as close to as broad and deep in its character library as the MCU and Arrowverse. The films were also, until pretty recently, all pretty explicitly interconnected, meaning that there are relatively few “missing” characters, sine everyone introduced had a role to play.

There are plenty more that we won’t mention here — but there is a difference between a character whose story seems to be done with one whose disappearance seems practical, or like it only happened because of budgeting or actor availability. And so, let’s take a walk down Arrowverse memory lane and see which of the characters you might have forgotten from Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow feel like they could use another go-’round with the heroes and villains of the DC Universe.

Dinah Lance

Given that both Sara and Laurel have died and come back, and now Quentin is gone, it’s either surprising that nobody has found a role for Quentin’s ex-wife, or not surprising at all, since she does not really have any loved ones left in Star City. Still, it is hard not to love Alex Kingston, who plays the character, and considering her maiden name, it would be fun to see what the other Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy) had to say when somebody finally realized that there was another person with exactly the same name and one degree of separation from Team Arrow.

Hawkman and Hawkwoman

The Hawks are emblematic of the disappointment of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow season one — they had a ton of potential, and it never seemed like it was quite realized, even if they did manage to come close a few times. They are also a little different from many of the names on this list because rather than vanishing without explanation, or having a half-assed explanation tossed out after the fact, the Hawks at least had an in-story reason for their send-off; their mission was completed, and the conflicts created by the Hawks’ eternal-soulmate status blended with Kendra’s existing romantic entanglements made things awkward for the pair to stick around with any of the superheroes they had met along the way. Instead, they decided to strike out on their own and see whether they really felt like soulmates.

Jeremiah Danvers

Speaking (as we were with Dinah) of people’s parents — what the heck ever happened to Jeremiah Danvers? Kara’s adoptive father disappeared years ago, presumed dead, and then re-emerged as a part of Lena Luthor’s attempts to bring aliens to heel. While working with the Cyborg Superman, he betrayed his daughters and both of them essentially disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. The Cyborg Superman we can probably do without — he is nowhere near as complex or interesting on TV as he is in the comics — but Jeremiah certainly is a character with whom everyone on Supergirl has some unfinished business.

Walter Steele

You gotta feel bad for Walter Steele. Back before Colin Salmon was playing one of the best live-action versions of General Zod ever put to film on Krypton, he was Oliver Queen’s hapless stepfather. While he was teased as a potential villain in the beginning, really it turned out to be his wife who was behind all the evil. Eventually he just kind of…stopped showing up, and we assume that he has to feel pretty bad about what happened to the company he stewarded throguh some difficult times following to death of founder Robert Queen.

Dr. Light

The Earth-2 version of Linda Park — a villain known as Doctor Light, who came around and became something of a hero in her final couple of appearances — has not been seen in years. Yeah, she is essentially off finding herself and struggling with the difficulties of living in a world where she has a doppelganger with a whole different life, but still: if you’re going to get rid of Linda because Barry isn’t dating anymore, her Earth-2 doppelganger seems like a solid way to bring that actress back and have a little fun.

Maxwell Lord

Back to the world of Supergirl, the recent appearance of Lex Luthor has reminded us that the show’s first Lex Luthor stand-in, Maxwell Lord, is still out there somewhere and presumably doing some evil off in a corner somewhere. The character, played by actor Peter Facinelli, was essentially a casualty of the move from CBS and Los Angeles to The CW and Vancouver, but still, it’s interesting that somebody with so much power and influence in the early days of the Arrowverse has more or less gone to ground.

Helena Bertinelli

One of the most notorious disappearances in the Arrowverse is Helena Bertinelli/The Huntress, who played a big role in the early days of Arrow but vanished more or less without a trace and without comment. She has been mentioned occasionally, mostly when the story calls to acknowledge the early episodes, although recently a stalkery superhero super-fan had one of her masks, which raises a question about just how he got it.

Hartley Rathaway

Granted, there have been numerous metahumans — heroes, villains, and civilians — who appeared only once or twice and never came back. Most of them are not on this list because, to be honest, they are there to serve a purpose within a single, specific story rather than to be a recurring part of the larger plot of a show. This seems to be the way they went with Hartley, and the thing that’s weird about it is only that they did not promote his appearances that way. They cast a recognizable actor and promoted his appearances quite a bit, gave him a backstory that was tied to Wells and Cisco, and then…well, nothing. He’s been mentioned a few times since the last time we saw him, but it seems like a missed opportunity.

Rory Regan

Ragman is a fairly minor character within the context of DC, but a kind of cult favorite because of his cool, weird power set and strange look. It was a bit of a surprise, then, that when he came to the Arrowverse, it was on Arrow and in a fairly meaty role. It was not long before it felt like the writers decided that he was not a good fit, though, and he sacrificed his powers to save lives, leaving him effectively useless to Team Arrow since he wasn’t much of a fighter and his computer skills were fine, but nothing like Felicity or Curtis. Like most of the team members to vanish over the years, Rory has been occasionally mentioned but there has been no real suggestion of what he is up to, how he is doing, or whether (as producers suggested at the time) his rags might “recover” and allow him to get back in the hero business.

Tracy Brand & Julian Albert

Bringing in Julian (Harry Potter‘s Tom Felton) was a huge deal at the time, but he never quite seemed to fit in with Team Flash. The writers really wanted to make a romance with Caitlin a thing, but Danielle Panabaker wasn’t feeling it — to no fault of Felton’s; she just didn’t want to be hopping from romance to romance every season.

By the end of his season on The Flash, the show had also introduced Tracy Brand (House veteran Anne Dudek), who struck up a romance with a version of Harrison Wells. At the end of season three, when that version of Wells was killed, she apparently left without comment — and so did Julian. 

Both of the characters have been referenced offhand, but it was really jarring to see such major players suddenly up and vanish without even an onscreen goodbye.

Snapper Carr

This is another example of a character who was brought in to fill a specific role, but never quite seemed to fit the chemistry of the show in spite of being played by a terrific actor (in this case, Cougar Town‘s Ian Gomez). Officially, his departure got an explanation from Supergirl in the form of a “sabbatical.” At this point, though, ol’ Snapper has been off work for a long time.

Wildcat

After teaching Earth-1 Laurel to fight and preparing her for the vigilante life that ultimately got her killed, Ted “Wildcat” Grant briefly suited up again — only to get absolutely demolished in a fight with Brick during Oliver’s post-“death” disappearance. We are to understand he got better, but…that’s about it. He hasn’t shown back up since, in any capacity. At this point, it would be surprising to see him return since the character has been cast on Stargirl.

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