Arrow's Big Bad Will Be Way Different Than We Expected

arrow the cw team arrow season 5

Arrow has a history of creating epically evil supervillains each season, and no two have ever been quite the same. The big question now that we're moving into a new era with Season 6 is if the big bad will be something entirely new. We already know the theme of the season will be all about family. Well, CinemaBlend's own Nick Venable was at the press Arrow for other outlets, and when he asked executive producer Marc Guggenheim about how the theme of family will tie into the big villain for Season 6, Guggenheim had this to say:

I'll say this: last year, we sort of built up this new Team Arrow and when we say that the theme of Season 6 is family, we were also sort of talking about the found families of a team like Team Arrow, so I would say without spoiling anything too much, wouldn't it be interesting if there was a team of villains to go up against our team of heroes?

Season 5 spent a lot of time building a brand new version of Team Arrow, which was actually quite necessary after the death of Black Canary, the retirement of Speedy, and the temporary absence of Diggle as Spartan. The new team was able to unite around Prometheus as the supervillain, but Prometheus is definitively dead after the Season 5 finale. Going by Marc Guggenheim's comments at the big San Diego Comic-Con, we're not just getting one big bad. We're getting a whole team of baddies.

A team of bad guys isn't totally unprecedented for Arrow. We've had villains teaming up before, with the Suicide Squad in earlier seasons and as recently as Prometheus' little squad on Lian Yu in the Season 5 finale. With all of Team Arrow pretty solid, it makes sense that it would take a unified group of villains to pose an actual threat against them.

The reveal that we're in for a team of bad guys may help explain some of what we've learned about Season 6 so far. We've known for a while that Katie Cassidy was going to be back on the scene, this time as the sinister Black Siren. We had a report last month that Arrow was bringing in a villain that fans have been clamoring for, and that description didn't apply to Black Siren, who was already on the scene. Our thought was that maybe Lady Shiva was on the way; perhaps that's still the case. Then, there's the recent clue that Richard Dragon may be showing up as well.

It was hard to say if all these reports were conflicting or not, but they totally make sense for a group of bad guys rather than one bad guy and a group of nameless minions, as we've gotten in earlier seasons. We'll have to wait and see.

Arrow will return to The CW in the fall. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in San Diego Comic-Con coverage, and swing by our breakdown of what we know so far about Season 6.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).