In a Season 5 full of surprises, Arrow has managed to keep one big secret from fans: who Vigilante is under the mask. Which is a pretty big deal, seeing as the series has rarely made viewers wait more than a couple months to see a mystery revealed. When will fans learn the secret identity of villain Vigilante? Not until Season 6 at the earliest. Here's what Arrow showrunner Marc Guggenheim has to say:
We know who it is, but we were kind of intrigued by the idea of having a mystery that led into the next season. We were excited at the prospect of just letting this play out for a little while longer, and it gives us something cool to do in Season 6.
So Season 6 will feature the big reveal of Vigilante, not Season 5 at all. That's news that's sure to tick off certain members of the viewership, since nobody likes to wait around for big twists. If those words hold up and we don't actually find out who Vigilante is until the fall TV season kicks off, that would be a first for The CW's DC TV series, which haven't ever reverted from revealing their antagonists' true selves within a single season. I know I'm not alone in saying, "This better be worth it," which probably sounds muffled because of my ask.
As for who Vigilante really is, your guess is as good as mine. Historically, Vigilante's comic book alter ego is Adrian Chase, and now that we know Chase is Prometheus, it's all up in the air. But it looks like Marc Guggenheim did some soul searching in the past couple weeks in regards to the Arrow villain's familiarity, and switched his "probably" to a definitely. While it sucks that we have to wait to find out who Vigilante really is, Marc Guggenheim's silver lining to Screener TV confirms the Arrow villain won't be someone new. Guggenheim says that whoever if under that mask is someone fans will know:
As a general rule, I'm not a fan of mystery characters who when you take off the mask the audience goes, 'What a minute, I've never seen that person before in my life.' I'm probably not spoiling anything by saying whoever's underneath the Vigilante mask, you've seen that person before.
So who could Vigilante be that we already know? Personally, I'm hoping and praying for the return of Slade Wilson, who was still alive when Oliver dumped him at a remote ARGUS facility in Season 2. Like Vigilante, Deathstroke is skilled in hand to hand combat and firearms, but so are most Arrow villains when you get down to it. Another hang up is why Wilson would want to mask his identity from Oliver, and why would ARGUS not have notified Queen of Wilson's escape? There's also the fact that Vigilante sounds nothing like Wilson and not nearly as buff, so who could it be? The hidden identity leads me to believe Vigilante could be someone closer to Oliver than we expect, and maybe someone we thought was dead. I guess we have time to think about it all, since Season 6 is still so far away.
Arrow will be all new this Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. After that, you'll have to wait until April 26th before the final episodes of Season 5 get underway. That also seems like an incredibly long time to wait, but at least you won't spend it wondering whether or not we're going to see Vigilante unmasked. Instead, you can head over to our summer premiere schedule and see what you can busy yourself with until then.
