"Arrow" Season 5 (various directors, 2016-2017, TV series)

[thegoon4eto]

http://www.thewrap.com/dolph-lundgren-t ... -on-arrow/

[Jox]

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/11/ar ... h-lundgren

Dolph Lundgren has joined the cast of Arrow as the new villain for season 5, the executive producers announced at the Television Critics Association’s press tour on Thursday.

“In our flashbacks in Russia — we’re set in Russia this season — we are going to be bringing in Dolph Lundgren as one of our big bads,” executive producer Wendy Mericle revealed.

Fellow executive producer Marc Guggenheim also revealed that this will be the final year for the flashbacks. “We always said that Oliver had a five-year journey when he was marooned on the [island],” he said. “This year, Oliver spends his time in the flashbacks in Russia. We know from various seeds we planted back in the pilot that he knows how to speak Russian, he became a Bratva captain. Sort of the flashback story in the first half of the year is going to involve Oliver’s introduction into the Bratva.”

Oliver’s storyline in Russia will mirror what’s going on in the present as he rebuilds Team Arrow. “He’s basically recruited into this crime organization while at the same time in the present day Oliver has recruits of his own,” Guggenheim said. “He’s a trainee in the past, trainer in the present, and I think that will give the audience the connect-up thematically between present in the past.”

[Jox]

Cool but I fear another clichéd rehash (remember his gusset-starring in "Chuck"?) of how Dolph is still only perceived in mainstream Hollywood to play Ivan Drago clones...

[thegoon4eto]

Yeah.
And appearently Dolph will be only in the flashback sequences. Which is
- good - because he will be in a lot of episodes
&
- not that good - because he will be in for 1-2 minutes in each episodes.*


* I am basing this on the last season of Arrow. The flashback villain was called Reiter, and he was in 16 episodes total. But as I pointed, he was in for 2-3 minutes of screentime total in each episode.
So yeah, I can easily see Dolph being in good 10+ episodes of the season. But with not that much screentime.

[Tom]

That's a good show to be on though. It's very popular. This is a better gig than just another production line DTV film. If it keeps him in the public eye a bit that helps too. At least he's getting some interesting offers between this and the Andy Samberg mockumentary.

[Jox]

ARROW is from Warner and recently (last year or so) he was supposed to star in a series pilot for them (about a veteran dealing with coming back home) but that show seems to have disappeared from the horizon...

SKIN TRADE's Celina Jade also had a big role in ARROW.

[bomaz]

Indeed. The first two season were kinda cool (nice villains from time to time, nice subplots and interesting fight here and there), but the third season was a mess, and I left there (maybe the 4th is cool).
I'll have to watch it though (characters in the flashback are usually well written and played, including Manu Benett, Kelly Hu and so forth).

[Jox]

Arrow executive producer Wendy Mericle told IGN that she is a huge fan of Dolph Lundgren and of Rocky IV specifically and "We might have a line taken from Rocky IV" to use in Arrow.

Lundgren's character will be in three episodes, and he and Oliver Queen will have at least one fight scene. Mericle promised, "That fight will be one for the ages. They're going to go and have a big old brawl."

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/08/11/ ... flashbacks

"We might have a line taken from Rocky IV" to use in Arrow.

Oh god please nooooo...

[bomaz]

Good news for the fight, they have decent fight choreographer and stunt people, so it's usually okay (despite the fact that it allwwwayyyyyyyys happens in a deserted factory).

Too bad for the gimmick line too.

[shooby]

I've just read that ... And it's always the same thing : a russian badass, like in Chuck. That's boring

I'll prefer to see him on Hawai 5.0 !

[DRC2013]

I've never watched Arrow, but I know it's a fairly popular show with a big fanbase, so at least it'll expose Dolph to a different audience, even if he's typecasted as yet another Russian bad guy.

Looks like he's clearly positioning himself to do some more television work lately, first that Tour De Pharmacy thing for HBO and now this.

Some of the old DTV action guys have been able to transition into TV work, like Mark Dacascos who did 15 episodes of Hawaii Five-O and then 11 episodes of Agents of Shield and of course that Iron Chef show.
Or even Linden Ashby, who certainly was on the lower level of DTV/TV movie stardom, has been a regular on Teen Wolf and done some other TV shows.

It's too bad about that SAF3 fiasco, but at least nobody seems to have seen it, so maybe it didn't hurt Dolph that much career wise. Would love to see him in a quality TV show as the lead or a regular at least.

[shooby]

Dacascos also played in the Stargate Atlantis franchise
And for others tv show, there is my thread : viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2006

[Jox]

Lundgren’s character was actually mentioned toward the end of season 4, when Taiana referred to the Russian villain Kovar. “He is somebody we heard about in season 4,” Mericle told EW following the panel. “Kovar. We are going to bring him in and he’s going to be this super big badass guy who works for the Russian government, and is not a friend of Oliver or the Bratva. It’s part of Oliver’s promise to Taiana at the end of season 4 and it’s going to be interesting because it’s going to get complicated and very messed up very fast.”

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/11/ar ... h-lundgren

[dude hallenbeck]

SKIN TRADE's Celina Jade also had a big role in ARROW.

So did Michael Jai White.

This show became atrocious with Season 3. But it's definitely a higher level of production and noteriety than crap like 4GOT10. I honestly believe television is a better medium for Dolph to work in these days.

[shooby]

I honestly believe television is a better medium for Dolph to work in these days.

provided it don't always have the same role of Russian villain !