Ever since it began on TV, Arrow has had a large gay fanbase. It’s something it hasn’t been afraid to play-on, with bucket loads of shirtlessness, teasingly homoerotic responses in interviews and an attitude that has seen some accuse it of gay-baiting. However, there hasn’t actually been a vast amount of LGBT characters and activity on the screen (indeed the first season of The Flash had more than three seasons of Arrow).
Now though, executive producer Marc Guggenheim has revealed, “We’re often asked when we’re going to add another LGBT character to the show and our version of Mr Terrific happens to be gay for anyone that cares about that kind of stuff.”
Echo Kellum (Ben and Kate) will play Curtis Holt/Mr. Terrific, a character that’s been part of the DC Comics universe since 1997 (there was a previous Mr. Terrific, aka Terry Sloane, although it’s believed Arrow will concentrate on the more modern take). However, it’s interesting that while nearly all screen versions of comic characters have either retained the sexuality they had on the page or straightened them up, this time around they’re making him gay, something he’s never been in other incarnations.
Indeed in the comics it was the death of his wife and child that turned Holt from billionaire, Gold Medal-winning Decathlete into a supehero. It’ll be interesting to see how that changes in Arrow. All that’s known so far is that he will will join the show as someone who works with Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards).
Greg Berlanti has previously spoken about his desire to have an LGBT character as a series regular rather than as a guest star (which is what they’ve been on both Arrow and The Flash), but it’s not known whether the plan is for Holt to be that regular character.
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