Arrow showrunner on where Emiko Queen fits, what's next for the New Green Arrow

With Arrow’s midseason finale revealing the new Green Arrow is actually Oliver Queen’s secret sister Emiko Queen (a character not unknown to readers of the comic), showrunner Beth Schwartz has revealed to Entertainment Weekly some of the plans the series has in store for her in advance of the show returning January 21.

For the midseason return, entitled “My Name is Emiko Queen,” Schwartz promised that viewers are "gonna really be seeing a lot from her perspective," adding: “We have a really cool, fun opening where we learn about her mission [and] why she’s taken up the Green Arrow suit. We’ll explain in this episode who her parents are.”

As played by Sea Shimooka, Emiko "is very similar to [Stephen Amell's] Oliver," according to the show's executive producer. And although Emiko’s debut on Arrow comes about a year after the departure of actress Willa Holland, who played Oliver’s sister Thea, Schwartz insisted that the plan “wasn’t to replace Thea, or once one sister left to introduce a new sister.” Instead, the producers of the series “were just excited about this character from the comic books, and … felt like it was time to bring her into the fold.”

Credit: The CW

Photo: The CW press site

The Arrow showrunner also teased additional details from the midseason premiere. For example, it follows Diggle (David Ramsey) and Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) as they seek Ricardo Diaz's (Kirk Acevedo) help on their current A.R.G.U.S. case. This ends up creating a new Suicide Squad called the Ghost Initiative, which includes China White (Kelly Hu), Slade’s son Kane Wolfman (Liam Hall) and Carrie Cutter (Amy Gumenick) that gets introduced in the next episode. 

“My Name is Emiko Queen” will also feature another flash-forward revealing a version of the Glades unlike one viewers have seen before. “We’re kind of opening up our world a little because we’ve only our characters in the future Star City, [which] has looked a little glum,” said Schwartz. “[The Glades] is much nicer than Star City, and we’ll get deeper into Rene and Zoey’s relationship and kind of how that dynamic has changed from the present day to the future.”

Arrow’s midseason premiere, “My Name is Emiko Queen,” airs 8 p.m. EST on Monday, January 21 on The CW.

(Via EW)