A new Team “Arrow” is about to come together, but it won’t be smooth sailing with a group of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed vigilantes.
After all, the Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) did shoot at one of his potential new recruits, a hockey-mask wearing vigilante named Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez), in the season premiere episode.
“It pissed him off, but it won’t keep Wild Dog off the streets, he does what he wants,” Gonzalez told TheWrap of his character ahead of Wednesday’s episode. “He’s a very stubborn character… He’s not listening to the Green Arrow, he’s like you got your way, I’m going to do it my way.”
Not that Wild Dog, whose real name is Rene Ramirez, was full of hero worship for the Green Arrow even before their scuffle.
“I think in Wild Dog’s mind, there’s no denying the fact that Green Arrow is someone who’s a formidable person and has done it many times over, fighting someone like Damien Darhk [Neal McDonough] and winning, he can’t deny that,” Gonzalez said. “But that’s where it stops. It’s like, cool, you have this ability. But that’s as far as I can go, I’m not going to bow down and say you’re amazing. Just give me what I need to know.”
Rene has his reasons for being terse and unimpressed.
“Wild Dog is someone who has a very heavy, dark past,” Gonzalez said. “He’s a person who walks around with everything that’s happened in the past, a lot of terrible things happened and it affects the relationships he has. He’s not the easiest person to get along with… At the end of the day, he wants to do the right thing, he wants to help the city, he just has a difficult time in doing it the right way. I think if you’re going to be a vigilante, doing it Green Arrow’s way is probably the best way to do it. For Wild Dog, it’s a little more reckless, a little more dangerous, and it speaks to the imbalance he has, psychologically, and it speaks to the trouble he’s had in his life, and it’s hard for him to let that go.”
Gonzalez also shared his desire to see Wild Dog break down some of those walls throughout the season, and teased that John Diggle (David Ramsey) may be the perfect person to help him do that.
“I think it makes so much sense in the world they created that Rene would automatically see the respect in John,” Gonzalez said. “His reputation precedes him, his energy precedes him, his truth precedes him.. He’s a person full of integrity and I think that energy could kind of disarm and break some walls down for Wild Dog and let them connect over anyone else.”
The actor also revealed his character will be part of the big four-show crossover between “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Supergirl” and “Legends of Tomorrow,” but true to the character, he won’t be so impressed with the new faces he might be meeting.
“What we’ll see from Wild Dog is his dislike for metahumans,” Gonzalez teased. “Instead of someone going, ‘Wow, that guy’s The Flash, that’s amazing!’ it’ll be like, ‘I don’t like you because I don’t like what you represent.’ He sees the negatives, he just sees things differently than a lot of other people. It gets to his psyche and we’ll see how sometimes it hurts him and sometimes it helps him… He’s very complex but I love playing that. I’m having so much fun playing this guy so I can’t wait for people to get to know him.”
“Arrow” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.