Season Six ‘Arrow’ Villain Will be Worst Yet
Oliver Queen has fought some truly evil villains over Arrow’s first five seasons. Malcolm Merlyn, Deathstroke, Ra’s al Ghul, Damien Darhk and Prometheus. And that list doesn’t include the weekly gangsters, drug dealers and metahumans Team Arrow has had to deal with.
Last year’s Prometheus was Oliver’s hardest challenge to date, as he spent the first half of the season pretending to be the mayor’s trusted DA and friend Adrian Chase. Once he was revealed, he tormented the team, using their most personal struggles against them.
In the finale, Adrian kidnapped all of Team Arrow, plus Oliver’s son William and his mother. In the closing moments Oliver watched as Lian Yu exploded with all his closest friends and family trapped on the island.
In the season five finale, Prometheus trapped all of Team Arrow on Lian Yu, then made Oliver watch as it exploded.
Other than the obvious questions of who survives, fans have wondered how the show will come up with a more devastating adversary in season six.
Executive producers Wendy Mericle and Marc Guggenheim discussed what’s ahead with Comic Book Resources.
“How do we top Prometheus? I ask myself that question every day,” said Guggenheim. “I’m a big believer that you always try to swing for the fences. At the same time, the more you make it about the fence swinging the more you take your eye off the ball. I think a big part of Arrow is, every year to varying degrees we always put the characters through some kind of grinder. What made Prometheus’ character — apart from Josh Segarra’s incredible performance — was we really put Oliver through the meat grinder.”
Apparently, season six’s villain will be even worse than previous bad guys.
“It’s going to be the biggest of all big bads, I can say that,” said Mericle. “I’m going to be very cagey about that one, sorry.”
It was previously announced that Manu Bennett would return as Slade Wilson in season six of Arrow. Though based on his appearance in the season five finale, he may not be a villain this time around.
“We’ve got some pretty cool meat grinder moments planned for the season. Hopefully we’ll be here next year and you guys will be asking, ‘How do you top so and so?,’” Guggenheim added. “The big creative choice that we made was, this year, the consequences have to be felt not just by Oliver but by the entire team. That’s a big part of the engine that drives Season 6.”
Despite the more fantastical elements of the other Arrowverse series, as the first of the bunch Arrow will remain more realistic than its counterparts.
“We really are just focusing on the elements that worked last year,” said Guggenheim. “The gritty crime stories, the grounded tone.”
“We’re going to really double down on that this year,” Mericle added. “What we found we really do really well is gritty crime drama with a little bit of levity with Curtis and Felicity. I think it was pretty successful in Season 5.”
Season six of Arrow premieres Thursday, Oct. 12 at 9 pm on The CW.
Who do you think the big bad is in Arrow’s sixth season?
Source: Comic Book Resources
