Many thought the major villain of Arrow Season 5 would be a Star City crime boss named Anton Church, but longtime Arrow fans had a hunch it had to be someone even badder. Now showrunner Wendy Mericle has confirmed speculation about the identity of the Green Arrow’s next adversary.
If Mericle's statements are any indication, the villain could potentially be someone we’ve met previously. She recently spoke with TV Guide magazine for a special San Diego Comic-Con issue and revealed this big bad has one goal: revenge. The villain is “somebody Oliver unwittingly created in Season 1 when he was a killer in a hood… this guy is going to be collateral damage who lost someone to the hood and has spent the last several years training and plotting for revenge. He will be a true dark mirror to Oliver Queen,” Mericle said.
Former WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes recently signed on to play a villain in Season 5, but The CW has kept his alter-ego a secret. In all his Twitter photos, Rhodes sports a sweatshirt that reads “Destroy Queen” on the back. Could Rhodes’ character be related to the person Oliver wronged in Season 1? If his mission is to destroy Queen, his agenda aligns with Mericle’s description.
Last month, Stephen Amell spoke on the identity of Season 5’s big bad explaining that he or she will allow all five seasons to come full circle and answer series-long questions about Oliver’s connection to the Russian Mafia.
“Our villain is going to in a lot of ways be a call back to season 1 and that’s something that you can do when you’re in season 5 and I think that the villain we have coming in is really going to ground the show and take us back to some of the elements that we had in the earlier days before we introduced so many fantastical elements to the Arrowverse.”
It’s a long list, but any guesses on a superpower-less character Oliver crossed in Season 1 that would want revenge? Stay tuned for answers from San Diego Comic-Con this weekend.
