Arrow (2012)
Arrow is a 2012 crime series created by Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti. It stars Stephen Amell, David Ramsey and Emily Bett Rickards.
Oliver Queen comes home from five years presumed dead, harder and quieter than the playboy who vanished. He returns with a list of names and a bow, working the rooftops of Starling City as a hooded vigilante while playing the recovered heir by day. Flashbacks to his time stranded fill in how a spoiled rich kid became a killer with a code. Built around Stephen Amell's brooding lead, the series launched a whole interconnected slate of DC hero shows and set their grounded, street-level tone.
Quick answers
What is Arrow about?
Oliver Queen comes home from five years presumed dead, harder and quieter than the playboy who vanished. He returns with a list of names and a bow, working the rooftops of Starling City as a hooded vigilante while playing the recovered heir by day. Flashbacks to his time stranded fill in how a spoiled rich kid became a killer with a code. Built around Stephen Amell's brooding lead, the series launched a whole interconnected slate of DC hero shows and set their grounded, street-level tone.
When was Arrow released?
Arrow was released on 10 October 2012.
How many episodes does Arrow have?
Arrow has 170 episodes across 8 seasons.
Who made Arrow?
Arrow was created by Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim.
Where can I watch Arrow?
Arrow is available on Pluto TV, Google Play, Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch Arrow
Watch free: Pluto TV
Rent: Google Play
Buy: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home, Google Play
Cast
- Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen / Green Arrow
- David Ramsey as John Diggle / Spartan
- Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak
- Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance
- Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance
- Willa Holland as Thea Queen
- Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramirez / Wild Dog
- Colton Haynes as Roy Harper
- John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn
- Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake / Black Canary
- Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt
- Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen
Similar series
Explore Arrow guides
A few thoughts on Arrow
Rooftop-vigilante fans should try Batman: Arkham City, which puts the same gadget-and-grapple crimefighting in your hands across a locked-down urban sprawl. Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins traces an almost identical arc, a rich heir remade abroad into a masked reckoning for his corrupt hometown, and it clearly shaped Arrow's grounded, no-superpowers approach.
DC shows that share Arrow's grounded, street-level tone
Arrow set the template for DC's small-screen heroes by keeping Oliver Queen's fight rooted in city politics and personal cost instead of cosmic stakes. The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Titans, Gotham, Constantine and Batman: Caped Crusader all build from that same interconnected, grounded corner of the DC universe, favoring character-driven crimefighting over spectacle.
Vigilantes who work outside the law and answer to no one
Oliver Queen comes home with a list of names and a bow, choosing violence the courts will not deliver. Daredevil, The Punisher, Luke Cage, Blade and Helstrom follow the same driven outsiders working the night shift, Death Note and Sin City put that vigilante logic on the page, and Max Payne and Human Target chase it through noir video game and TV plotting alike.
Wealthy heirs hardened into killers with a code
Arrow traces exactly how a spoiled rich kid becomes a killer, using island flashbacks to earn Oliver's transformation into something harder. Batman Begins does the same work for Bruce Wayne's fall into vigilantism, The Godfather, in both Puzo's novel and Coppola's film, follows Michael Corleone's slide from reluctant heir toward his father's ruthlessness, and Reacher tracks another hardened outsider enforcing his own justice.
Detective and vigilante games where every choice costs something
Starling City gives Oliver Queen a list and a private code to enforce alone, and these games put players in that same morally weighted position. Batman: Arkham City, The Wolf Among Us, Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain and Disco Elysium all hinge on choices a masked or hardened protagonist has to live with afterward, not scripted heroics handed to them.