The CW has greenlit a Green Arrow TV show which CW’s head of development Thom Sherman has called “very provocative and sophisticated and edgy” and “not as comic book-y as Smallville or other [superhero projects] from other networks.” CW’s Green Arrow won’t have any superpowers and is instead a billionaire playboy industrialist who uses archery, martial arts, and expensive technology to uphold the law, which is a type of superhero we’ve never seen before. Yes, that was sarcasm.
CW has cast Stephen Amell (Vampire Diaries, 90210, Hung, Private Practice) in the titular role. The role of Dinah “Laurel” Lance (AKA the Black Canary) has just been won by Katie Cassidy of Gossip Girl, Melrose Place, and Supernatural. Susanna Thompson has been cast as Moira Queen, the mother of Oliver Queen / Green Arrow. David Nutter is directing the pilot, which was written and produced by Greg Berlanti (Green Lantern), Marc Guggenheim (FlashForward), and Andrew Kreisberg (Fringe, Warehouse 13).
If the show’s casting sheet is any indication, this sounds like another CW “rich people behaving badly” show. The character descriptions read like a soap opera trying to do social commentary in a primetime slot:
Oliver Queen: A 27-year-old reformed bad boy, who after having spent five years shipwrecked on a tiny, brutally dangerous island in the South China Sea returns to town a different man. Or to be more specific, a tortured, thoughtful master of the bow with a ferocious determination to make a difference.
Dinah “Laurel” Lance: 28 years old, smart sexy, Laurel is a legal aid attorney determined to use her life as a one-woman war against the 1% following the death of her younger sister Sara. A sister, who as luck would have it, just so happened to have died aboard Oliver’s yacht.
Tommy Merlyn: 28 years old and devil-smooth, Tommy is a trustafarian like Oliver, a spectacularly rich young man whose life revolves around parties, clubs, liquor and lots of anonymous sex. Unlike Oliver, he can’t seem to understand his former best friend’s sudden change of lifestyle and direction.
Moira Queen: 48 years old, a beautiful woman, Oliver’s mother Moira is a very wealthy woman who is not used to being shaken. Having remarried during the five years that former husband Robert and Oliver were both presumed dead, Moira has had free rein over the Queen billions. Not surprisingly, she’s deeply interested in learning whether or not Robert will also return unexpectedly, to ruin her present marriage and go over the books with a fine-tooth comb.
John Diggle: 35 years old, African-American, Diggle is really, really big, a former military man who served with the Army Rangers in Afghanistan, and has been a bodyguard for hire for the last four years. Hired by Moira to be Oliver’s chauffeur and protector, Diggle soon finds he is trapped in a battle of wits, as Oliver repeatedly eludes his protection. But in fact, Diggle’s primary conflict is one of loyalty: he has to show that he’s working for Oliver, not Moira, before Oliver will give him a smidgen of trust.
Thea Queen: 17 years old (suggest 17-22 years), Oliver’s Lolita-esque sister, Thea was a 12 year old girl when he went on his infamous yachting voyage—but now she’s a celebutante who’s testing the boundaries of acceptable behavior. Thea loved her big brother with all her heart, and is delighted to have him back in her life—but she’s spreading her wings, and is unprepared for Oliver to become the Bad Cop in the family, restricting her access to boys and drugs.
Rich people returning to town after being presumed dead, trustafarians, conniving rich middle aged women, a blond woman trying to fight “the 1%”, a bodyguard as the only non-white character, and a tabloid fodder jailbait rich girl? Yeah, it’s a CW show.
[Sources: Deadline (1, 2), Blastr (1, 2); Image credits: Shutterstock.com / Shutterstock.com]