Arrow: A New Deathstroke, and perhaps Shado as well?

Have you ever watched Arrow and thought “there really needs to be more partial nudity on this show” – well this news update is just for you. The powers that be behind Arrow have heard your concerns and have searched the world high and low to find the man (it is network TV after all, no bare boobs here) to best fit the bill.

Let me introduce you to Manu Bennett. You may know him from Starz’s Spartacus, both the series Spartacus: Vengeance and the mini-series, Spartacus: God of the Arena. In less than two weeks, you’ll be able to check him out as an orc in The Hobbit. He’s finding his way around Hollywood and his next stop is at Arrow.

He is going to be Slade Wilson, whose alias is Deathstroke. We’ve already seen Deathstroke in the show but he was masked and (obviously) played by another actor. Bennett is scheduled for a multiple episode arc which is good because surely I’m not the only one starting to wonder how many DC villains/anti-heroes the show is going to go through. Huntress is multiple episodes and we’ve seen China White briefly in two, but both Deadshot and Royal Flush Gang have been one and done, so we are led to believe at least.

With Bennett cast as Slade Wilson as opposed to just Deathstroke, could this possibly lead to Adeline Kane as well? I can’t say that I expect it because as we’ve seen so far, the writers of Arrow are not overly concerned about canon, but it still would be cool. Of course I can’t dismiss it completely either because there was another character that I projected we would not be seeing thanks to the very dark and convoluted back story.

Thanks to tumbler user tyndalecode

Well I was wrong. This is none other than a casting call for the character of Shado. If I was a guessing type of gal, I’d say that maybe she will be a part of the island flashbacks. I’m going to have to go back and see if they actual refer to the island as deserted because as far as I can see, there’s been quite a few people on that deserted island and we’re not even halfway through season one.

If they mess with her storyline to the point of being unrecognizable, I’m going to be ticked and I have a feeling I’m not the only one. There are people still reeling from Deadshot taking an arrow to the knee eye in the first episode. Shado has such a great story. FUBAR as all get out in some regards, but still a great story. If she shows up as one of Laurel’s paralegals or as Yao Fei’s gal pal, I just might find myself constructing a strongly worded letter to the writers of Arrow.

With all this casting news, I’m disappointed that we haven’t heard nary a whisper of my “most wanted” villain, Onomatopoeia. Surely he is coming to the show soon right? Perhaps after Vertigo’s story plays out. Or maybe they are actually keeping some DC characters on the shelf for a second season. We’ll just have to keep watching to see.