Arrow's David Ramsey On Diggle's Relationship With Oliver, Suicide Squad and the Potential for Supergirl

Tonight marks Arrow's fourth season premiere, and a return to the airwaves for DC [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Tonight marks Arrow's fourth season premiere, and a return to the airwaves for DC Entertainment's flagship live action series.

As things open up, of course, Oliver Queen has been off the grid for a while and John Diggle has had to step up to lead Team Arrow in his absence. But what will things be like when Oliver is compelled to return?

Ramsey joined ComicBook.com to talk about tonight's premiere and what's coming for Season Four.

Can you describe Diggle's relationship with Oliver as the season opens?

Going into the premiere? Well, my first instinct was to say "icy," and maybe there's an element of that. Diggle is at a place of indifference, I think. I don't think he's angry at Oliver anymore. He was. He was angry; he was shocked and disappointed in Oliver, but I think now, five months into the new Team Arrow working as a well-oiled unit in Starling City without Oliver, I think he's become indifferent.

This is a guy who has a military background; he's Army Special Forces, he's a Ranger. He's all about the unit -- the unit's only as strong as its weakest link. Oliver is the polar opposite to that: he spent five years on that island and all the stuff he's been through since the island, learning how to trust his instincts and not depend on his unit.

So these guys, just from where they're starting off, are opposed to each other in a sense. The way it starts for Diggle is that he understands where Oliver is, it's not the same place he is, and he's okay with that. Of course, the story doesn't stay there, but that's where it starts.

What are the most relationships you're most interested in developing for Diggle this year?

Because, going back to what I said about the new Team Arrow being together five months, there's a strength and a bond that they've created with Laurel and Thea that we've never seen before because it wasn't there. So there's a new kind of dynamic between these three that I think we explore a little bit that I'm interested in exploring more and that I think the writes will explore more because of the time they've spent together.

There's also, as far as Diggle's arc, obviously the organization of H.I.V.E., who hired Deadshot to kill his brother. Diggle's been on this very personal trail to get to the bottom of it, so there's that, and H.I.V.E. is one of the big baddies of the season, so there's that.

Also, there's his wife. We find out very soon what her perspective is on what Oliver felt like he had to do last season and what Diggle feels about that, and her involvement with A.R.G.U.S. and the Suicide Squad and how Diggle feels about that and what that does to the relationship. So he has a few places emotionally he has to go. This is probably the most emotional season for Diggle.

How is A.R.G.U.S. going to play differently this year?

I think part of that will be the relationship with Lyla. Her involvement with A.R.G.U.S. will be again how he's involved. His involvement with A.R.G.U.S. was always connected to his wife; his involvement with the Suicide Squad was always through his wife. Some of that is what we're going to get into. I don't know how that ties into the Suicide Squad, to be honest with you, or if it ties into the Suicide Squad, to be honest with you. There's a movie that's being done with them, so there's some things above my pay grade that I just can't answer because I don't know.

But I'll tell you that she's involved with A.R.G.U.S. and Diggle will have some feelings about that, which will take the relationship to a different place.

What is it about Diggle's relationship with Lyla that you find most interesting? It's obviously very different from the other romantic relationships we've seen.

Well, it's a more mature one, right? It's the most mature one we've seen on the show.

I think what's gone on with Diggle has become, because he doesn't have a canon and they're making it up as they go along, someone who can kind of exist on his own in his own universe. Now he has this urban warfare suit and he's married to a woman who's involved with A.R.G.U.S. and the Suicide Squad. I think the Suicide Squad mission that he was on could have lived on its own. They could have done a six-episode arc of Diggle as the leader of the Suicide Squad.

I think that he's an interesting character because he's so different from so many of the other characters, whose stories exist to facilitate the hero. Even Diggle had it for a little while -- his storylines, like most storylines, existed to facilitate the hero. But I think we've got a character now whose stories don't connect, necessarily to Oliver. Like, going to find out about his brother. It does, in the writing, obviously because all of the stories connect together -- but it doesn't have to. It's kind of an interesting universe all by itself, I think. There's a child involved; he's Mr. and Mrs. Smith, for God's sakes.

There's some type of familiarity that we have with marriage and coming and having dinner at a table and sitting down and taking your keys out and kissing your wife and there's a child in the crib. I think there's something very familiar about all of that that makes Diggle very accessible and very regular, even though he's doing these extraordinary things. I think that's part of his appeal, is that he's a regular guy. He's probably the most well-adjusted character. He's reconciled his demons from Afghanistan, unlike Oliver who's still wrestling with the island. I think he's at a place where people tune in to just how human he is.

When everyone wanted you to suit up, I always thought Diggle as a stand-alone character was a great addition to the canon. Are there any characters, though, that you look to as an inspiration, or "That would be cool to play an element of that?"

Sure. That's a good question. To be completely honest with you, I was one of the ones that didn't see it the way you saw it. When the idea of playing John Stewart came up, I was as one of the ones who was like "Yes! YES!" The enormity of the Green Lantern Corps, the history, the grandness of the John Stewart persona was just, as an actor, just fantastic.

You know who he is, so you have a certain amount of expectation of what they might see and you know the writers would want to give that stuff to the fans, so you know he'd have great special effects and visual effects and he'd have a ring and all that stuff is just good stuff to sink your teeth into. I was always a comic geek, I've always loved the Green Lanterns. I loved John Stewart, I loved Hal Jordan, I loved all the Lanterns. So to be able to say "Hey, you'll get a chance to play this," it would be great stuff. I had to come around to understanding -- and I had to, because I was told "no," but even if I was told no, I didn't have to agree with it -- but after really thinking about it, I came to see it the way you saw it. Diggle never existed before; we're creating him as he goes along. He's now part of the DC canon and if he's still around 20 years from now, somebody else will play him.

This is really a great opportunity for me as an actor to play that, and I really just had to come around to seeing that, and getting out of the shadow of the light of the Green Lantern, so to speak. And the desire to play his role like John Stewart.

I think John Diggle is just as rich, and only time will tell how rich he is as a character...but we're making it up, and that's fantastic stuff, man. I mean, what the helmet can do, what the gun can do, we'll see that during the season. What his armor can do, we'll see that during the season. All that stuff we're making up, the evolution of his suit, we're going to see that all coming up soon.

Can he compare to the Green Lanterns? The Green Lanterns have a long legacy but I don't think that's the point. I think the point is just creating this new character that never existed before that wil survive on legs of his own without the power of the Corps. So I came to that place but it took some time.

Are you guys all keeping an eye on Supergirl and what's going on over in that corner of Berlanti's world?

Well, yeah. The direct answer to your question is yes. I am as an actor very aware of what's going on over there. It is a Berlanti show and I'm not aware of everything that's going on over there. Obviously Warner has a say, DC has a say, and everyone has a direction that they're going. But as an actor, obviously you would love a world where Superman and Supergirl exist. What does that do to a team like Team Arrow? What does that do to that world?

We're seeing how that world responds to something as powerful as The Flash; what happens when something as powerful as Supergirl or Superman is introduced? It would be interesting. I've always been the one curious about where Bruce Wayne is in our universe. Not necessarily Batman, but is he part of the League? Are we going to see that Bruce is part of the League? We don't know, so as a fan, as a geek myself, I'm very interested in seeing it. Do I want a world where Arrow, The Flash, Legends and Supergirl all cross over? Hell yeah. I would love that world. I just don't know if that world exists. It's way above my pay grade.

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