‘Arrow’ season 5, episode 13: Show boss on tackling gun violence for Wild Dog episode
On Wednesday night, there is going to be a new episode of “Arrow” that will revolve in part around a shooting, but also the character of Rene a.k.a. Wild Dog as we start to see him look back at his own history that brought him to becoming a crime-fighting vigilante in the streets of Star City.
We knew based on premise alone that this was not going to be your standard hour of “Arrow,” and we’ve now got further verification of that very thing. Speaking on this subject to Entertainment Weekly, show executive producer Marc Guggenheim confirmed that this episode is going to be a little more thematic than usual, and will focus on gun violence and some of the debates that this issue leads to among the team and also in the city. It’s a complicated problem, given that there are several characters, including John Diggle and Rene, who use guns as their weapons. With that said, there’s still a difference between what crime-fighters are trying to do (i.e. using guns as a last resort) and then other people who are using them in order to deliberately kill. Everyone will have their own opinion.
What’s also interesting about this episode is that you may not see Stephen Amell sporting a familiar costume at all. Here’s what fellow EP Wendy Mericle had to say on the subject:
“There was an opportunity also to do an episode where he wasn’t going to get in the Green Arrow costume … From a story perspective, it was really the challenge of figuring out what would an episode look like where we had to solve the issue of the day, or the problem of the week, with Oliver Queen as mayor as opposed to him gearing up as the Green Arrow.”
Do we figure that there is a camp of people out there who will be frustrated with this episode, and feel in some way like delivering such a story right now keeps them from escaping into another world? Sure, and we understand that sentiment. What we would say as a counter is that one of the merits of this story in particular right now is that this is going to mark an opportunity to see how these characters within the show react to such a topic, and this is important if you want to see this world as grounded in some reality. This is something that “Arrow” has always wanted to do, so we feel like it’s necessary in that sense.
Do you think “Arrow” should steer clear of something so political, or are you happy to see them touching on the subject? Share now in the comments, and head over here to see a preview for the story right now! (Photo: The CW.)