Darren Shahlavi Joins ARROW As Villain Constantine Drakon

I don't believe I've heard of any of the actors cast in this series XD Looking forward to it nevertheless.

I think too many jumped on the hate train with this a little early. I mean it could still suck, but everything is sounding great so far.

I'm a big Ollie fan, so I'm really excited for it.

Isn't Drakon a short guy? But well, him being in it has got me a little more excited, and after the first image, I can see the creators actually put a lot of effort on this one...let's see.

Would love to see Count Vertigo, too.

Quite coincidentally, I've just seen Ip Man 2 last night, right on the part where he appears...assassin? Sure, but I can't tell more.

His costume looks very much like the Smallville costume. As a Smallville fan, this show bothers me for two reasons:
1) People who hated Smallville looking at this like it will be so good. After years of people hating on a show I liked, it's annoying that they would now like that show's (unofficial) spin off based on a picture that looks like Smallville.
2) I understand why people hate Smallville. It made a lot of promises all the time it didn't keep, checks it couldn't cash and fans who stayed true to the show were often let down (there were good moments, but this was a major problem). Green Arrow was one of my favorite characters on the show; everything they did with him was perfect. I always wanted a Green Arrow spin off as I think smaller characters like that are great for TV. Since they did him perfectly on Smallville, I had always hoped for a spin-off that would create a live action DCU like the animated one from years ago. They had already introduced and set up so many DC characters and adapted them well for television; it was a no brainer to me. Then they could continue with live action shows of other characters. Maybe Flash could return to TV, or Aquaman spinoff? Or maybe other characters like Nightwing (i still want this show bad).. Point is: I feel screwed over by CW/DC again. :/

I really hope this show is good.

@mrHJK - Smallville was a great show and Ollie was a great character they used to good effect. However, it seems to me that it would be difficult to have a straight spinoff of the characters. Barring something like a Legion series that took place in the far future, there would always be the question, "Why didn't they call Clark or the League?" This is especially true for GA. By having a spinoff that is unofficial it avoids the problem of other heroes which Smallville in its final years always had to deal with. Remember how they had to mention not being able to get a hold of Hawkman or the Martian Manhunter was off somewhere etc.? While it is great to see a show populated with heroes it makes it more difficult to control the story.

I hope this show will be as well done as Smallville and as successful because we need more comic book live action tv series.

Hell yeah! This mofo was a beast in Ip Man 2... I'm 100% on board this show now.. a hero is only as good as his villian, and this guy is intimidating as hell

Do you think the CW would let him get away with the 'GA crucifixion' scene from his first appearance? it seems kinda sacreligious, but the first episode of smallville was also very heavy on the crucifixion imagery so who knows...

AlexDeLarge87: Darren's listed as 5' 11" (1.8 meters), while Drakon has always been listed as short; his exact height is never given. That surely contradicts, but I think they are focusing more on the assassin part, and less on the height. (Well, doesn't seem like so much a big deal to me.)

This is a good bad guy to have if they do him right. Get him and Deathstroke as ateam like they have in road to Jercho and its will be awsome!

DUde is a nasty martial artist, and was great as Kano. He'll be perfect for a first arc, and have him be teaching Merlyn how to fight and employing Merlyn as an assassin. Merlyn has taken up the craft as something to do as he's been bored since Ollie disappeared. Ollie was his only competition in archery and anything else.

watch IP Man if you have Netflix... THis guys acting BLOWS

I don't know that much about Green Arrow's rogues gallery, but this actor is good at playing villains.

@Ha1frican I thought he did a decent job.