Black Panther Actress Signs Onto Arrow Season 6

Sydelle Noel, the GLOW actress who has a small role in Marvel’s forthcoming Black Panther movie, has booked a recurring role on The CW‘s Arrow.

Noel will play Samandra Watson, whose official character description says she is “intelligent and poised with a no nonsense attitude.” She is also obsessed with learning what connection there is between Star City Mayor Oliver Queen and the vigilante known as the Green Arrow.

That’s a bit of a shift in philosophy for the series, which has historically been more cavalier with Oliver’s costumed identity than the comics.

“For us, him keeping his secret identity is sort of the least interesting part of the character,” executive producer Andrew Kresiberg said in 2013. “People knowing and letting him talk to people, and letting him share that experience, we find to be much more interesting.”

Noel is the latest addition to a series that has become increasingly diverse in recent years, adding Echo Kellum, Juliana Harkavy, and Rick Gonzalez in series regular roles. The increase in female representation on both Arrow and executive producer Marc Guggenheim’s other series, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, was commented upon at last week’s TCA press tour, with Guggenheim admitting that it was an intentional move to make the Arrowverse feel more like the world outside the audience’s window.

Arrow season 6 will pick up moments after the show’s explosive season 5 cliffhanger, and will deal with the repercussions of Oliver’s deadly battle with Prometheus. It will be something of a reboot for the series, which had structured much of its action around Oliver Queen’s “five years in Hell” — the time he spent stranded away from home — but the flashbacks caught up with the start of the pilot at the end of season 5. The series adds Lost alum Michael Emerson in an as-yet-undisclosed role for season 6, and one of the season’s villains — Richard Dragon — is described as a “grounded” crime lord.

Arrow‘s sixth season will move from its usual Wednesday slot to Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT, and will debut on October 12.

h/t: Variety