'Arrow's' Manu Bennett Upped to Series Regular for Season 2 (Exclusive)

He joins recently promoted Colton Haynes and Emily Bett Rickards on the CW's Stephen Amell starrer.

The series has promoted Manu Bennett to series regular for its recently announced second season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.

On the network's adaptation of DC Comics' long-running title, Bennett plays Slade Wilson -- who in the comics ultimately becomes Arrow's villain Deathstroke. Producers have been cagey if Bennett would follow his comic book counterpart and transform into the famed villain, featuring multiple Deathstrokes during its freshman run.
Exec producers Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim have thus far written Slade as an ally to Stephen Amell's Oliver, appearing in Arrow's flashbacks to their time on the island.

Bennett joins Colton Haynes (Roy Harper) and Emily Bett Rickards (Ollie's IT whiz Felicity Smoak) as series regulars for Arrow's second season. He's currently wrapping the third and final season of Starz's Spartacus, where he plays Crixus. Repped by Sanders Armstrong Caserta Management, Bennett also stars as Azog in all three Hobbit films.

Looks like they are setting up for a great season finale.

I haven't watched tonight yet, but it's been a good show all season. Has to be the pleasant surprise of the year.

You will enjoy the carnage in this ep.

What kind of role are you playing on the show?

It's a good show, I got into halfway through the season, even though my wife has been watching it all season.

It doesn't hurt that Laurel and Felicity are hawt either.

Fantastic season finale

That was really good. Nice to see a show with enough cajones to have some stakes.

Damnit, they've cast Summer Glau, showkiller.

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I started watching this a few weeks back, finished the season, damn good show.
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I sat down and watched the whole season in a few days. I am going to make sure to watch it this year. I really liked it.

So they're going to introduce Barry Allen as a recurring character this season, leading towards a Flash spin-off series: http://www.deadline.com/2013/07/cw-e...-david-nutter/

Awesome. Love the Flash. Probably my favorite DC character.

In Arrow, though, they have kind of gone out of their way to not have anyone with superpowers. I wonder how the Flash will fit into that?

I'm Stephen Amell's stand-in on the show. :)