Oliver Queen better watch his back on Arrow, or pretty soon he might not have a back to watch at all. After defeating Malcolm Merlyn, Deathstroke, the League of Assassins, and Damien Darhk, the Green Arrow is facing a new villain in Arrow Season 5 and he doesn't even know it yet. The first two episodes of Season 5 have introduced Prometheus, a mysterious new villain who wears a black leather getup complete with a full-face hood that hides his identity. But, who is Prometheus on Arrow and what does he want with Star City's favorite vigilante?
In the season premiere, Prometheus introduced himself by using arrows and a sword to kill a police officer in cold blood. In the second episode of Season 5, he appeared again, this time threatening Tobias Church to stop trying to kill the Green Arrow. Other than that, we know literally nothing about Prometheus, but that's not what makes him scary. No, what makes him so frightening is that Oliver doesn't know he's out there, looking for him, protecting him, supposedly, so that he can be the one to kill Green Arrow. Make no mistake: Prometheus is a villain, and he's a completely new one. Though there is a DC Comics character named Prometheus, according to Entertainment Weekly, that is not who we've met on Arrow, which means his endgame, his origin, and his methods are completely unknown, even to comic book fans.
Without the comics to use as a blueprint, it's tough to figure out who Prometheus is, let alone what he's after. Luckily, producers of the show have teased a bit of what's ahead for Prometheus and Oliver this season, and it doesn't look good. "He has a very personal grudge and axe to grind with Oliver and he's going to come at him in a really interesting, sociopathic kind of way," executive producer Wendy Mericle said in an interview with IGN. So, whoever Prometheus is, this won't be the first time his path has crossed with Oliver's. However, based on what we've seen so far, it looks like Prometheus has a grudge with the Arrow himself, not Oliver Queen (at least not yet).
It's notable that, in the same interview, Mericle revealed that this season was meant to be a reflection of Season 1. Could Prometheus be related to a victim of Arrow's revenge plans pre-Felicity Smoak? Or maybe Prometheus blames the Arrow for failing to save the Glades? Showrunner Marc Guggenheim hinted that Prometheus' backstory would relate back to the first few seasons and told Mashable, "[The] character's backstory and his raison d'être and mission statement are all things that could only be done in Season 5." In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly, Guggenheim was even more clear, saying, "I can really only say that Oliver bears a measure of responsibility for the creation of Prometheus."
Prometheus, it would appear, has been slowly taking shape over the past four seasons. But it's unclear whether or not Prometheus is a character the audience has met before or not. Some have theorized that Prometheus is any number of older Arrow villains, like Deathstroke, Helena Bertinelli, or even Robert Queen (not really a villain, but, you get the idea). Others suspect Prometheus' true identity to be that of Felicity's new boyfriend, Detective Malone. Another report from CinemaBlend has named Prometheus as "James," though that seems to be a placeholder name.
It looks like we might not find out who Prometheus really is until Oliver does. And I'm willing to be it will be just as much of a shock to us as it will be to the Green Arrow himself.
Images: Bettina Strauss/The CW; arrowsource, oliverqueenism/tumblr
