‘Arrow’ season 4 debate: Should Damien Darhk (or someone else) be new Big Bad?

We are going to start this “Arrow” debate piece by stating pretty clearly that this is all for the most part hypothetical. Based on everything that we have been able to surmise as of late, it feels pretty clear that the new Big Bad for the upcoming fourth season is going to be none other than Damien Darhk and HIVE, the infamous group who hired Floyd Lawton to kill John Diggle’s brother.

However, should the series really go in this direction? The writers, who are back at work now, have a variety of different issues to consider. One of the biggest ones coming out of the third season is that the response to Ra’s al Ghul wasn’t the best. Why was that? We feel that some of it was that it was too hard to understand his endgame for most of the season, and there were also long stretches where he really was not that terrifying. Matt Nable did the best with the character that he could, but he was not altogether interesting all off the time.

In going down the path of darkness / Darhkness, you are continuing along with someone who has inherent ties to Ra’s. It does not mean that we’ll be seeing the late Demon’s Head referenced at almost every point, but you have to consider it a possibility that you’re not moving that far away from where we just were.

As for highlighting a former Big Bad, Slade Wilson was excellent, but it is also unlikely that we’ll see much or any of him given Manu Bennett’s commitments elsewhere. John Barrowman, meanwhile, is still a series regular, so we figure that Malcolm Merlyn as the new head of the League of Assassins still has a major role to play before all of this is over.

Then, there is the possibility of someone new, more crossover villains with “The Flash,” or maybe the return of a smaller villain who is back now to become a Big Bad. All are possibilities in one way or another.

At this point, who or what are you hoping for? Vote now in the poll below, and head over here to see some “Arrow”-related nominees for the 2015 Teen Choice Awards! Also, you can sign up now to get some other TV updates on all we cover, courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: The CW.)