‘Arrow’ Star Rick Gonzalez Teases Redemption in Season 7

Arrow‘s upcoming seventh season will see all of The CW series’ characters dealing with the fallout of Oliver Queen’s incarceration for his activities as the Green Arrow, but according to one of the series’ stars the real theme of the season isn’t consequences. Instead, it’s all about redemption.

Rick Gonzalez, who plays Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog, told ComicBook.com at San Diego Comic-Con last month that it’s the concept of redemption that each character will explore this season.

“It’s redemption, you know, and I think Beth Schwartz, our new showrunner really found this idea of redemption for each character and I think that’s awesome because it kind of lends itself to the idea of why Rene came in the first place,” Gonzalez said. “It’s like how do I redeem myself and he’s always trying to find a way to right the wrongs in his life and I think this season’s about seeing where each character are in their journey and why they chose to be a vigilante or not and I think that’s going to be our redemption story.”

For Rene, that redemption has been a long time in coming, especially after the events of last season in which Rene was put in the position of having to testify against Oliver in order to not lose his own daughter. That difficult choice led to a deep rift between Oliver and Rene. Ultimately, Rene won Oliver’s respect but as Gonzalez explained, everything Rene does is rooted in his ultimate desire to be a good father.

“I think what’s cool about Arrow was they created a character in Rene that deep down wants to be a dad and I think that’s his ultimate motivating factor in putting on the mask,” Gonzalez said. “So, every decision he makes in terms of being a vigilante is not so much selfish, but more about wanting to keep his daughter safe and doing that in a way that he thinks is right by protecting the city. I love playing Rene because I understand that he cares so much about wanting to be a good parent, so I always root for him in that way.”

And Rene will have even more reasons to want to keep his daughter safe in Season 7. With Oliver in jail, Diaz is still on the loose. It puts the heroes in a situation where they’re going to have to redefine what it means to fight for the city something that Gonzalez told Entertainment Weekly puts everything into question.

“The idea is that, now with him being in prison, we’re having to interpret the idea of fighting for Star City,” Gonzalez said. “Continuing to move forward and do what we need to do to help the city. But how do we interpret that? How does that come about? The choice of me being behind the mask, do I do that, how do I do that, or do I not do that, so we’ll see that throughout the entire season.”

The season seven premiere of Arrow, which is titled “Inmate 4587”, will debut on Monday, October 15th, at 8/7c on The CW.