Expect Arrow’s Richard Dragon To Be “Very Grounded”

To date, Arrow has been able to lay claim to some of the best overarching villains boasted by any of the DC TV shows. Not only did the likes of Malcolm Merlyn and Deathstroke provide for some compelling television, but they were also given such depth in subsequent appearances, truly feeling like multidimensional characters.

On the other hand, we’ve had those who’ve resided in less of a grey area such as Ra’s al Ghul, Damien Darhk and Prometheus, each of which put Oliver Queen and his teammates through the wringer in the most gruelling of ways. Being one able to see other sides of an argument, I imagine that some of you would make a case for Ra’s being more than a “black hat” villain, but I believe that despite having the goal to preserve the Earth at all costs, he was among the most vile we’ve thus far encountered.

But one thing all of these guys have in common is that they each had a taste for the theatrical, either donning lavish costumes or employing mysticism to achieve their ends. Well, expect that to change with one of season 6’s big bads, namely Richard Dragon. According to executive producer Marc Guggenheim, he’ll present a threat unlike most others Team Arrow have encountered:

“You know, what I really like about our interpretation of Richard is, he’s very grounded. He’s not a flamboyant big bad, he doesn’t wear a costume, he really is a crimelord sort of in the Tobias Church model. For Tobias we only really saw him for about five episodes, so we were excited about the prospect of doing a cool, gritty crime lord, but for a longer period of time. We’ve never really done that on the show before, so it’s different.”

Now, initial reports coming out of San Diego Comic-Con placed Michael Emerson as Dragon (something backed up by IMDb), but others have stated the veteran actor is playing an unnamed character, with Dragon yet to be cast. Either they’re indeed one and the same, or, Emerson is Richard Dragon Sr. and the role of his son, Ricardo Diaz, hasn’t been filled as we previously suspected. That being said, hopefully the producers provide some clarification before long.

Arrow returns for its sixth season on Thursday, October 12 on The CW.