Arrow Featurette Gets to the Point

With the new TV season in full swing, all the networks are battling for eyeballs in the all important goal of high ratings. The CW held back a bit when it came to Arrow, the superhero drama based on DC Comics’ Green Arrow. While the new series has yet to debut, the network did release the above featurette, which includes interviews with the cast and creators and also shows off unseen footage.

The video features Stephen Amell explaining the concept to potential viewers, and noting that Arrow is about a more real world-based superhero. Executive producers Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim also get in on the action by recapping Oliver Queen’s playboy-turned-hero history, including the time he spent on a deserted island after a shipwreck.

We also get looks at characters Detective Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthrone) and lawyer Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), the former trying to figure out who Green Arrow is, the latter a one-time love of Queen’s who blames him for her sister dying on the same boat accident that left him on an island for five years. The video also shows off Colin Donnell as Oliver’s party-boy friend with the villainous moniker Tommy Merlyn.

Unlike the comics, Oliver Queen’s family also plays a pretty large role in the series. He has a younger sister Thea (Willa Holland) who seems to be turning into a party-obsessed mini-me of his former self along with his mother Moira (Susanna Thompson) who remarried while Oliver was missing. To protect her returned son Mrs. Queen hires a bodyguard named John Diggle (David Ramsey) to protect him.

The last minute or so of the video focuses on showing off the series’ action moments while also reiterating the point that this hero is mortal, doesn’t have powers and faces very real danger when he dons the green hood.

Arrow premieres on Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.