'Arrow' season 4 spoilers, plot: Show casts Ryan Robbins as another villain from Oliver's flashback
Oliver Queen will have plenty of villains to face in "Arrow" season 4. One of them will be a ruthless man named Conklin, who will be played by "Falling Skies" star Ryan Robbins. This baddie will be seen in action in Oliver's flashback scenes.
Conklin is a heartless member of the Shadowspire, a crime organization Oliver comes across before he returns to Starling City. The leader of this villainous group, Baron Reiter (Baron Blitzkrieg in the comics), was previously announced to be portrayed by Jimmy Akingbola.
Apart from these two antagonists, Oliver will take on a slew of other villains in "Arrow" season 4. This includes metahuman Jeremy Tell aka Double Down, who will be played by "Teen Wolf" star JR Bourne; and Anarky, who will be portrayed by Alexander Calvert.
The biggest villain of this season will be Damien Darhk, the arch-nemesis of Ra's Al Ghul and leader of H.I.V.E., the organization responsible for killing Diggle's brother Andy. This supervillain is played by Neal McDonough, who already started filming.
Just recently, the show's very own Paul Blackthorne, who plays Captain Lance, snapped a photo with McDonough on set. In another photo Blackthorne shared on his Facebook page, McDonough can be seen in full Damien Darhk mode from what seems to be footages in the editing room.
In describing the villain, executive producer Marc Guggenheim told Access Hollywood, "He's not as centurion as Ra's, he's not as looney tune as Slade, he's not as — and people will be surprised I use this word — but he's not as noble as Malcolm Merlyn."
"He's pure evil," he explained. "We wanted someone who was truly, truly malevolent. We've never done that on the show before. All of our big bads always thought they were doing... the wrong thing for the right reason. This guy does the wrong thing for the wrong reasons."
According to Blastr, the inclusion of Oliver's past foe Shadowspire in "Arrow" season 4 definitely has to do with his present adversary, H.I.V.E., as this was always the case with other villains in the previous seasons.
"Arrow" season 4 will premiere on Oct. 7.
