Arrow and The Flash limit their big crossovers - last month saw the heroes teaming up with Hawkman and Hawkgirl to battle Vandal Savage - but there are plenty of opportunities for mini-crossovers on both shows. Case in point: actor David Ramsey, who plays Arrow’s John Diggle, teased this past weekend that he would be appearing on The Flash later this season. Now we finally have the details of what he’ll be doing in Central City, and it involves a big metahuman problem. Literally!
Diggle and his wife Lyla Michaels (played by Audrey Marie Anderson) will appear in Episode 15 of The Flash Season 2 to help the S.T.A.R. Labs team battle King Shark, who we last saw in “The Fury of Firestorm.” Here’s what executive producer Andrew Kresiberg told Comicbook.com about Diggle’s visit:
The Diggles arrive in Central City to help Barry take on King Shark who has escaped from ARGUS and is hellbent on completing his mission of destroying The Flash.
Although Diggle has appeared on both official Arrow/The Flash crossovers, this will be his first time hanging out with the Scarlet Speedster without Oliver and Felicity along, and hopefully he wont lose his lunch again. Arrow Season 4 has finally seen Diggle obscuring his features with a helmet while operating in the field (though still no codename), so he’ll be able to keep his identity safe while in Central City. Since Lyla still appears to have a working relationship with A.R.G.U.S., it makes sense the organization would send her and Diggle after King Shark, given they’ve dealt with superpowered threats more than others. Kreisberg previously said that it was too expensive to do a full King Shark episode on The Flash, but it sounds like they found a way to make it work, putting the fishy monstrosity in good company with Grodd.
It’s hard to keep villain appearances a secret in this day and age, but King Shark’s appearance on The Flash earlier this season came as a complete surprise to many. After Patty first mentioned a crime she was investigating where she found a shark tooth and rumors of a “man-shark,” King Shark came out of nowhere in the final seconds of “The Fury of Firestorm” and snagged Barry. Like Atom Smasher and Sand Demon, he was one of the many metahumans Zoom brought over from Earth Two to kill Flash. It was only thanks to Earth Two Harrison Wells and his fancy energy gun that Barry didn’t become shark chow. Fun fact: there is also an Earth One King Shark who was seen in The Flash: Season Zero digital comic book, but it doesn’t look like the show will be sinking its teeth into him anytime soon.
The Flash returns with new episodes on Tuesday, January 19 at 8 p.m. EST on The CW, while Arrow returns the following day at the same time. To see when everything else is premiering in the coming months, head over to our midseason TV schedule.
