At this point it’s getting hard to argue against the effort the CW’s Arrow has been putting into digging into the DC Universe for their characters. But the news that’s coming now is big and, frankly, surpising. I don’t think anyone expected this.
If you want to be surprised, I suggest you turn back before the…
The producers of Arrow announced quite some time ago that episode 13 of season 2 would be titled “Heir to the Demon”, a title which makes even more sense now that the League of Assassins has been properly introduced into the series, rather than just hinted at (John Barrowman’s Malcolm Merlyn’s mysterious mentor in Nanda Parbat).
Speculation naturally turned to Ra’s al Ghul and his daughter Talia. However, TV Guide is reporting that Spartacus‘ Katrina Law will appear on the series as the villain’s other daughter, Nyssa. Presumably they opted to go with the much less well-known Nyssa because Talia is so closely tied to Batman.
According to TV Guide, Nyssa will be heading to Starling City because she’s after the Black Canary.
Law’s casting brings the number of Spartacus actors on the Arrow cast up to three, as she joins Manu Bennett (Slade Wilson) and Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Amanda Waller). This ties the series with Doctor Who for most actors poached by Arrow.
In other Arrow news, it was announced this week that in an episode next month Oliver Queen will finally start wearing a mask.
Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg explains,
”Conceptually, it was something we wanted to do because Oliver himself is evolving as the Arrow– from vigilante to hero, sort of from Arrow to Green Arrow — and we wanted to see that progression in his costume as well. As Oliver is embracing being a hero, being a hero means stepping out of the dark and being more of a symbol, so he has to take steps to conceal his identity more.”
Which is good, because that eye make-up was starting to get kind of ridiculous.