After nearly two seasons of “will they?/won’t they?” on Arrow, Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak finally finally got together back in May during the Season 3 finale. Although the couple will face challenges when they return to Starling City this fall, they’re still staying together for at least the first couple of episodes. So it may sound odd at first that Oliver will be falling for another woman in Season 4, to be played by Elysia Rotaru, but there’s a catch: it won’t be in the present day. That should come as a relief to fans who like Oliver and Felicity together, or Olicity, as the kids are calling them.
Rotaru has been cast as Oliver’s new love interest in the Season 4 flashbacks, but her identity is being kept under wraps for now. Oliver’s last love interest from the flashbacks was Shado, who was murdered by Anthony Ivo in Season 2, so let’s hope Rotaru’s character fares better. Executive producer Marc Guggenheim told EW that Oliver’s relationship with Rotaru’s character will provide an interesting angle for his current romance. Guggenheim said:
Oliver is gonna have a love interest in the past that will serve as a parallel or potentially a contrast to his love affair with Felicity in the present.
The article may have provided a clue about who Rotaru is playing. When we last saw flashback Oliver, he was boarding a boat headed for Coast City, and Guggenheim revealed that Oliver will indeed make it to his intended destination. Coast City is famous in the comics for being the home of Hal Jordan, a.k.a. Green Lantern, and although the Arrow folks have already ruled out Hal appearing on either their show or The Flash, maybe we could see a character from his supporting cast. I’m talking about Carol Ferris, Hal’s primary love interest who later became Star Sapphire.
Arrow is known for mixing and matching DC characters, so it wouldn’t be entirely weird to put Oliver and Carol together romantically. Just because Hal won’t show up doesn’t mean that Carol can’t play a key role in this series. Don’t forget that Ferris Air has also been seen and mentioned several times on both Arrow and The Flash, so we know that she, or at least her family, exists in this universe. Whoever Rotaru is playing, it’s great Oliver will find someone to connect with after going through three years of pain, even though we know it won’t work out between them.
Rotaru’s is best known as one of the leads in the 2012 miniseries Choose Your Victim. Her resume also includes guest appearances on Supernatural, Hellcats, Fringe and Backstrom. This is her third DC Comics TV show, having previously played two separate roles on Smallville and she also appeared in the pilot of the Vertigo series iZombie. Rotaru is the third actor who will play a prominent role in Season 4’s flashbacks, following Jimmy Akingbola as Baron Reiter and Ryan Robbins as Conklin.
Arrow Season 4 will debut on Wednesday, October 7, in its normal timeslot on The CW.
