Arrow showrunners have repeatedly spoken about expanding the Arrow world. It looks like Cynthia Addai-Robinson is the latest addition.
With a rich comic-based history, there are many directions the hit CW show can go in. Cynthia Addai-Robinson is slated to play Amanda Waller. Fans of the comics will recognize that name as being immediately associated with A.R.G.U.S., also known as Advanced Research Group United Support.
Now, as benign as the name A.R.G.U.S. may sound, the organization is anything but. Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s Amanda Waller character is sticking closely to the comic book characterization. According to T.V. Guide:
In the comics, Waller runs the Suicide Squad, which will be introduced in Season 2 as Deadshot (Michael Rowe) teams up with Bronze Tiger, who will be played by Michael Jai White.
If you are wondering why Addai-Robinson looks familiar, it may be because she recently did a stint on The Vampire Diaries as Aja. Her most famous role, however, was Naevia on Spartacus.
As fans can tell from the above Spartacus clip, Addai-Robinson should be more than up to the fast pace and stunt work that playing a villain on Arrow will entail. Title star Stephen Amell has let fans know that the show is as physical as ever. Over the last two days he has tweeted the following, “You know it’s an exceptional fight sequence when I tear the entire ass out of my suit pants,” and, “After much consideration, I’ve concluded that there is no good way to repeatedly slam your knuckles into a giant belt buckle.”
Another side to Addai-Robinson’s casting is that the CW has often been criticized for not having enough ethnic diversity. Fortunately, in this case, they chose to include the Amanda Waller character that, from her inception, has traditionally been written as a character of color. Arrow, in general, has a better track record than many CW shows in providing diversity.
Waller took to her Twitter account to confirm the casting; however, she is giving nothing more away, citing a “silenceisgolden” hashtag.
Guess the cat's outta the bag…but you're not getting nothing else outta me! #silenceisgolden
— CynthiaAddaiRobinson (@CynthiaAddaiRob) September 4, 2013