TVLINE | Over the first run of Season 2 episodes, it felt as if you were setting up pieces on a chessboard….
That was definitely the plan.
TVLINE | So as the show comes back, will we see these different elements coalesce and take shape?
Absolutely. One of the things we learned from last season was we built up to Episode 9, where we revealed that Malcolm Merlyn was the Dark Archer, then we kind of put things on simmer — and this year we’re coming back [from the break] with a bang. Oliver is obsessed with finding the man in the skull mask, Brother Blood, who he finally got eyes on in Episode 9, and we’ll be seeing Slade in the present and his machinations with Sebastian to bring about Oliver’s downfall.
These next four episodes are also, in a way, a big Laurel chapter because we really get to see Laurel’s drug use come back to bite her. She hits rock bottom and Katie Cassidy is just delivering the most amazing performance. She’s really kicked it up a notch and we’re so proud of her.
TVLINE | That’s good to hear, because one of my questions was how you planned to make Laurel relevant to this next wave of storytelling, beyond possibly dating Sebastian.
You know, it’s been somewhat hard, I think, for Katie and us to hear some of the criticisms of her character because we don’t do anything without thinking about it. And one of the great things about having as much success as we had in Season 1 was the freedom to allow things to unfold the way that they should. We’ve always had a fantastic plan for Laurel’s character, and I know that there’s impatience out there in the world to see her “strap on the fish nets” [as Black Canary] but everything we’re doing is all about leading up to that in a the way that we feel keeps it the most realistic and grounded. To take somebody who is a public interest lawyer and turned her into a super hero… you have to go through the paces. So this season we’ve really been putting her through her paces. We always think of these things as chapters, and these next four episodes are really about Laurel. She’s taking center stage as she begins to suspect that Sebastian is not exactly who he seems.
That was definitely the plan.
TVLINE | So as the show comes back, will we see these different elements coalesce and take shape?
Absolutely. One of the things we learned from last season was we built up to Episode 9, where we revealed that Malcolm Merlyn was the Dark Archer, then we kind of put things on simmer — and this year we’re coming back [from the break] with a bang. Oliver is obsessed with finding the man in the skull mask, Brother Blood, who he finally got eyes on in Episode 9, and we’ll be seeing Slade in the present and his machinations with Sebastian to bring about Oliver’s downfall.
These next four episodes are also, in a way, a big Laurel chapter because we really get to see Laurel’s drug use come back to bite her. She hits rock bottom and Katie Cassidy is just delivering the most amazing performance. She’s really kicked it up a notch and we’re so proud of her.
TVLINE | That’s good to hear, because one of my questions was how you planned to make Laurel relevant to this next wave of storytelling, beyond possibly dating Sebastian.
You know, it’s been somewhat hard, I think, for Katie and us to hear some of the criticisms of her character because we don’t do anything without thinking about it. And one of the great things about having as much success as we had in Season 1 was the freedom to allow things to unfold the way that they should. We’ve always had a fantastic plan for Laurel’s character, and I know that there’s impatience out there in the world to see her “strap on the fish nets” [as Black Canary] but everything we’re doing is all about leading up to that in a the way that we feel keeps it the most realistic and grounded. To take somebody who is a public interest lawyer and turned her into a super hero… you have to go through the paces. So this season we’ve really been putting her through her paces. We always think of these things as chapters, and these next four episodes are really about Laurel. She’s taking center stage as she begins to suspect that Sebastian is not exactly who he seems.
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