The Walking Dead's Chad Coleman Will Be New Villain In Arrow Season 5
Evelyn Sharp will also return.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the new villain for Arrow Season 5 would be a inspired by The Wire.
Now they've cast the part, and actually turned to a Wire alum for the role. According to IGN, Chad Coleman will be playing Tobias Church, a recurring villain throughout the fifth season, starting with the premiere episode in October.
Church is described as "an imposing gangster looking to unite the various criminal enterprises in Star City under his own singular command." That sounds like the kind of villain Arrow needs as it looks to go back to basics, and recapture what made the first couple of seasons so enjoyable, and Coleman seems like an astute piece of casting.
He's long-since made a new for himself on hit TV shows, starring as Dennis 'Cutty' Wise on The Wire, before going on to become a fan-favourite as Tyreese Williams on The Walking Dead. He was pretty great in both roles, bringing considerable depth to the characters, and hopefully that combined with his imposing stature can create a memorable villain for Arrow Season 5.
The other piece of casting news (via Variety) for the fifth season is that Madison McLaughlin, who played the young Black Canary impersonator Evelyn Sharp in Season 4, will be returning in a recurring role, this time as Artemis. A masked archer (because the show hasn't had many of those), she's traditionally a villain, but was given a heroic twist in the Young Justice series, and it's unclear which way the character will go on the show.
That's in addition to the recent castings of vigilantes Wild Dog and Vigilante, so Arrow is very much expanding its roster this year, with Echo Kellum making the step-up to series regular.
Arrow Season 5 will premiere October 5.