Colton Haynes has been playing Roy Harper on The CW’s ‘Arrow’ for over a season now and at the end of last season, we saw him emerge as a full-on part of “Team Arrow” helping Oliver/The Arrow and Black Canary save Starling City from Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) and Brother Blood (Kevin Alejandro). In the comics, of course, Roy Harper was Green Arrow’s teenage sidekick, Speedy, who eventually became one of the core Teen Titans. As an adult, Harper eventually took on the identities of Arsenal and Red Arrow. It looks like Haynes’ TV character will be following along that plot line.
Apparently, he will be using the name Arsenal, not Red Arrow. But considering that Oliver still doesn’t go by Green Arrow, I guess that makes sense. And Ollie often refers to his sister Thea as “Speedy” taking that nickname out of consideration.
Of the classic Teen Titans, Roy Harper has always been the most troubled. As Speedy, he developed a heroin addiction (which was somewhat addressed on ‘Arrow’ with the Mirakuru storyline). He later had an affair with super villain Cheshire and fathered a child, who was later killed by villain Prometheus who also sliced Roy’s right arm off. On ‘Young Justice’ Roy was cloned and kept in suspended animation for years while his clone went about his life, infiltrating his team.
With The CW moving forward and bringing more and more characters from the comics into its TV universe, it’s only natural that Green Arrow’s first partner makes his heroic debut and we have the first image of him in his superhero garb!
What do you think of Colton’s heroic guise? Are you excited that Arsenal will be playing a larger role on the upcoming third season of ‘Arrow’? Or would you prefer he go by Red Arrow or Speedy?
Source: Coming Soon via Entertainment Weekly
