Is it an expendable role? Maybe…but Dolph will try to break Green Arrow. Photo/Comicbook.com
Tobias Church hasn’t even been gone a week but life on Arrow goes on…and it’s not so bad, after all. This past week, Prometheus set his plan to create chaos into motion; and greater emphasis is placed on this season’s flashback story that puts Oliver in Russia.
Queen infiltrates a secretive Russian mafia/cult organization, the Bratva, so he can get close to and kill Kremlin strongman Konstantin Kovar (played by the one and only Ivan Drago himself, Dolph Lundgren), who first appeared in New Titans back in 1968. Meanwhile, in the present, Prometheus continues his killing spree to cause mass panic and to Send Oliver a message. Prometheus somehow knows about the List of names (that “failed this city”) that sent Ollie on his quest for redemption as the Green Arrow.
And the mystery man and would be arch-villain is harvesting the spent arrows of Queen’s quiver from previous cases. Only someone on police payroll close to the evidence lock-up could do that. Is Prometheus someone in the GA circle?
One had to wonder, even a little, if Arrow would see greener pastures on the other side post-Church, and things actually couldn’t be better. Intrigue is heightened now that they are building to Prometheus as the main event of the season, and Dolph Lundgren is poised to bring a lot to the table — not just his size and gravitas.
Anyone concerned if he is coming in to just resurrect the Drago persona need not worry; Lundgren brings his chops. He plays a tough guy but something more cerebral, like the Kingpin, even downplaying the accent.
Lundgren is a choice that could bring ratings, and he will bring the importance desired to the flashback sequences — the likes of which we haven’t seen since season two when Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) was the villain past and present simultaneously.
If the goal here is for Kreisberg and the writers to get the show back to some semblance of where it was three seasons ago, they are off to a good start.
