A couple months ago, Colton Haynes announced that he would be leaving his role as “jerk with a messed up emotional situation due to the fact that he is a lizard man” on Teen Wolf to begin the next chapter of his career. And now fans of two shows know what that next chapter is, and it’s an interesting one for comic fans as well. Haynes has been brought on as a recurring character on the CW’s Arrow, one who shares a name with Roy Harper, a character known in comics by such aliases as Speedy, Arsenal, and Red Arrow, or, in otherwords, Green Arrow’s original sidekick.
But of course the show isn’t coming right out and saying that he’s going to be fighting crime anytime soon, same as they didn’t after the creators deliberately made Arrow/Oliver’s sister sort of a mashed up reference to both Roy Harper and Mia Dearden, another Green Arrow supporting character to fight crime under the name Speedy. From TV Guide:
Details on this iteration’s possible secret identity are being kept, well, secret, Haynes’ Harper is being described by The CW as “a handsome, street-savvy, teenager from ‘the Glades,’ the harsh, poverty-stricken portion of Starling City.”
The recurring role will provide a love interest for Willa Holland‘s Thea (who is also nicknamed “Speedy”…hmmmm), as well as some serious juice for the show’s growing mythology. According to the network’s breakdown on the character, in addition to falling for Ollie’s little sister after crossing paths “in an unexpected way,” Roy is “destined to become a significant part of her life and an important player in the larger world of Arrow.”
Arrow is by no means the best or smartest show on television right now. But beneath the often stilted dialogue and the moments when it rides right up to the line of taking itself to seriously, the things it’s actually trying to talk about are topics like PTSD and class privilege, and they haven’t let their hero character be 100% right for 100% on these issues an episode yet (although I’m a couple weeks behind). While the show isn’t one I’m lauding, it’s one I’m very interested in seeing evolve.
Okay, and I want Thea to become Speedy.
(via MTV Splashpage.)
Published: Dec 12, 2012 11:45 am