Arrow’s Michael Rowe Thinks Deadshot Survived the Explosion

Before he was Ninjak in the upcoming Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe, Michael Rowe was Deadshot on Arrow — and before every member of the Arrow supporting cast seemingly went up in flames at the end of season 5, Deadshot seemingly bought the farm in a massive explosion a couple of years before.

…But Rowe isn’t buying it.

“I don’t think that he died in the explosion; maybe that’s just me giving the character a lot of credit,” the actor said when ComicBook.com spoke with him on the set of Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe. “I know that he’s notoriously hard to kill, and I have my own theories as to what happened in that situation. You didn’t see a body; they just had to remove him quickly from the show because of business and there would be a lot of fun ways to bring him back….”

It’s no secret that the Suicide Squad were intended for bigger things — at one point David Ramsey told ComicBook.com that there was a spinoff planned — but the big-budget movie pretty much put the brakes on that. Rowe says in spite of that, he still believes there’s a decent chance fans might see his Deadshot down the line.

“Me coming back to Arrow or any of those shows is always a possibility,” Rowe said. “You’re talking about a universe where they deal with time travel, there’s all kinds of flashbacks, there’s ways to bring people back to life, there’s ways to go to alternate earths like you’ve seen on The Flash. We had fancy plans for Deadshot but it wasn’t the producers or anybody involved with the show; it went way higher than that. There was just an executive decision to slow down Deadshot on TV so they could focus on Deadshot in the Suicide Squad film. I feel like we have unfinished business with it; it’s just, will they let us get back to that? “

After a violent shipwreck, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) was missing and presumed dead for five years before being discovered alive on a remote island in the North China Sea. He returned home to Star City, bent on righting the wrongs done by his family and fighting injustice. As the Green Arrow, he protects his city with the help of former soldier John Diggle (David Ramsey), computer-science expert Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), his vigilante-trained sister Thea Queen (Willa Holland), Deputy Mayor Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne), brilliant inventor Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum), and his new recruits, street-savvy Rene Ramirez (Rick Gonzalez) and meta-human Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy).

Oliver has finally solidified and strengthened his crime-fighting team only to have it threatened when unexpected enemies from his past return to Star City, forcing Oliver to rethink his relationship with each member of his “family”.

Based on the characters from DC, ARROW is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Greg Berlanti (“The Flash,” “Supergirl”), Marc Guggenheim (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” “Eli Stone”), Wendy Mericle (“Desperate Housewives,” “Eli Stone”), Andrew Kreisberg (“The Flash,” “Eli Stone,” “Warehouse 13”) and Sarah Schechter (“The Flash,” “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”).