BREAKING: A Reason to Care About Arrow

Because Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Producers veteran John Barrowman is returning to a regular television role in it.

The CW’s Arrow, an adaptation of the character Green Arrow of DC Comics, has not exactly captured our imaginations, despite some considerable effort on our part. I mean, it should be hitting all the marks: it’s a superhero adaptation, it’s not going for camp, and appears to be harboring some of the same thematic elements of its original source. Maybe it’s the fact that there looks to be a lot of drama with the extended Queen family in with the buttkicking. Maybe it’s that while Dinah Laurel Lance is a character in the show, there’s no indication yet that she’ll also become Black Canary. Okay, maybe it’s because it’s on the CW and not, say, HBO, A&E, or Showtime.

But now… now we have to care. Because Captain Jack is going to be playing some mysterious business guy. Time to root for the dark side, perhaps.

The Doctor Who and Torchwood star has signed for a recurring role in Arrow’s debut season. Producers are not saying much about his character, only revealing that he will play a “well-dressed man” who is “as mysterious as he is wealthy … he is an acquaintance of the Queen family and a prominent figure in Starling City.”

Sounds to me like a second season villain, sown throughout the first season just so when we think the hero’s made a big accomplishment, he can trot out to sneer at him like a show’s fabulous and untouchable even bigger big bad should. Or he’s another character entirely, I know pretty much zip about Green Arrow’s supporting cast. Speculate as you will.

(via Entertainment Weekly.)