Now that Damien Darhk and his oddly spelled name are officially out of the picture on Arrow, the show's casting department has started looking for the next big bad guy to threaten Star City.
TV Line reports that a casting notice recently went out looking for actors to take on the role of Anton Church, who will become the Green Arrow's main nemesis next season. The character is a crime lord, loosely based on Idris Elba's character in The Wire, who will take over Damien Darhk's job of terrorizing Oliver Queen's city. The notice calls him an "apex predator" who "cuts his way through the shadows" by taking down "the biggest threat first."
That description suggests that the Green Arrow is probably this villain's first target, meaning that Oliver might have to start running for his life early on in season five. That's definitely an improvement over Darhk, who spent a lot of time just threatening those people around Oliver.
It's likely that the villain is actually someone from the DC comic books and that the name "Anton Church" is just a temporary reference. But Arrow hasn't shied away from using new characters either.
Arrow's casting team, though, aren't looking just for an Idris Elba type. They also want someone with Jason Momoa's physique - someone who could also appear threatening physically. That's also a departure from Darhk.
Last season's Arrow had a lot of missteps with its villain, with Darhk ultimately being one of the weakest bad guys on the series. The season also killed off yet another of its strong female characters, Black Canary, and found itself bogged down with the soap opera antics of the Oliver and Felicity relationship.That and the many useless flashback scenes left many fans disappointed with Arrow's fourth season.
Here's hoping that season five improves the show. There is a slight chance that things could change drastically on Arrow, too, thanks to events that happened on the season finale of The Flash. In this case, a complete reset wouldn't necessarily hurt the series.
Arrow returns to The CW in the fall.
