‘Arrow’ Promotes Manu Bennett To Series Regular For Season 2

Spartacus star Manu Bennett has been promoted to series regular for the second season of the CW’s Arrow.

Bennett plays Slade Wilson, who eventually becomes the villain Deathstroke in the DC Comics’ Green Arrow. The producers of the series haven’t decided if Bennett’s character would follow the same trajectory as his comic book counterpart. So far, he has been written as an ally to Oliver Queen (Stephen Arnell).

Bennett told the Huffington Post last month that he was taking things one step at a time as far as his character’s development. He said he had just arrived at Vancouver Airport and received an email from his manager that the role he had been offered, which was called Holloway, was really Deathstroke. Unfamiliar with the name, Bennett questioned out loud who the character was, and a customs employee told him, “He’s the bada** of the comic world.” So while it sounds like the end goal is to transform Wilson into Deathstroke, it’s not a sure thing just yet.

“I’m really just living the character as he appears on the page, week by week,” Bennett added. “I guess in this story, maybe I just don’t know when I’m going to become the Deathstroke that all the people are familiar with in the comic books, and that page will turn, so keep turning the pages and I’m sure it will unfold itself.”

Bennett joins Colton Haynes (Roy Harper) and Emily Bett Rickards (Felicity Smoak) as Arrow‘s new series regulars for season 2. The series was renewed last month and its series premiere holds the title of most-watched show on the network with 4.3 million viewers.

Manu Bennett is currently wrapping up Spartacus: War of the Damned over at Starz. The series is ending its third (fourth if you count the prequel, Gods of the Arena) and final season on April 12, 2013.

Are you excited to see Manu Bennett as a series regular on Arrow?