Just when I think “Arrow is the greatest gift to television sci-fi-based games of Six Degrees of Separation ever” jokes are getting a little old, Arrow hires one more actor who was central to a famous science fiction television franchise.
According to TV Line, Nicholas Lea will be joining the Arrow cast this season:
Arrow has nabbed an X-Files alum who’ll play a huge role in changing the life of a Queen family member… The actor will appear in Episodes 12 and 13 as Mark Francis, Walter Steele’s close associate. Francis will have a crucial part in the surprising twist that Moira’s life will take after her murder trial.
Lea might be most familiar to fans of sci-fi TV as Agent Krycek, FBI agent turned servant of the Smoking Man turned wild card, from The X-Files. His casting also links Arrow to Supernatural, considering Lea’s one episode stint as Elliot Ness in season 7, as well as V and Kyle X-Y. Keep that in mind the next time you’re playing six degrees of separation.
But there’s one character that Arrow appears to be getting a little less of, and that’s the Flash. The CW initially announced that Barry Allen, sans his superhero identity, would appear in three episodes of Arrow this season: two regular ones, and then later in the season one devoted entirely to him to serve as a back door pilot. Deadline reports that that has now changed:
Episodes 8 and 9, in which the superhero is introduced only as his alter ego Barry Allen, have already been shot. But now the CW has opted to film a traditional standalone Flash pilot instead of doing a backdoor pilot as Episode 20 of Arrow. With Episodes 8 and 9 serving as an origin story, the plan was for The Flash character to make his debut — red costume and all — in Arrow‘s Episode 20. He will now do it in the pilot.
The decision was apparently made after episodes 8 and 9 received a warm reception from the CW mucketymucks.
