The villains from the CW hit seriesArroware known to be some of the best in the “Arrowverse.” With the writing team developing and fleshing out their characters as the series progressed, their deep connections to Team Arrow and the lengths they were willing to go to harm Oliver made the villains ofArrowmenacing and memorable.Arrowconsistently delivered villains that were engaging to watch, so that even when things weren’t looking good on the writing side of things in later seasons, audiences had incredible villains to look forward to. This was directly reflected in the way the writers developed the series' villains, who sought to make the bad guys more than just the garden variety “villain-of-the-week” characters that are all-too-common on television.
TheArrowvillains had depth and complexity, and these factors not only made the series a must-watch, but also helped spawn the expansive “Arrowverse” universe that is still ongoing today. The best villains inArrowwere compelling, and engaging and found a way to shake the foundations of the show from under Team Arrow’s feet countless times in one way or another. The following 10 villains kept the show interesting by how often they would break the mold and make life vexing for Oliver and Team Arrow.
Spoiled billionaire playboy Oliver Queen is missing and presumed dead when his yacht is lost at sea. He returns five years later a changed man, determined to clean up the city as a hooded vigilante armed with a bow.
10Murmur (Adrian Glynn McMorran)
First Appearance:‘Arrow’ Season 3, Episode 16, “The Offer”
What made Murmur such a fun villain to watch was howutterly destructive he would grow to become to the world ofArrow,primarily through his association and alliance with Season 4’s primary antagonist, Damien Darhk, and his criminal organization called H.I.V.E. Because of his serial killer naturethatmade him unremorseful and cold-blooded, his inability to hold back or care about those he was wronging consistently threw tough situations in Team Arrow’s direction.
All of this would eventually come into play whenMurmur led a prison breakout at Iron Heights under the command of an also imprisoned Damien Darhk.He handed out books to countless inmates with shivs inside, with the intent of murdering as many innocent guards as possible. This mass breakout gave Damien Darhk everything he needed tobreak out and continue his plans, killing Laurel Lance in the process.
9Deadshot (Michael Rowe)
First Appearance: ‘Arrow’ Season 1, Episode 3, “Lone Gunmen”
Deadshot was continuously a fan-favorite thanks to his stellar marksman skills andincredibly compelling connection to core Team Arrow member, John Diggle.His marksman abilities would consistently bring him back into the plot over the years, always being hired for assassinations and, eventuallygoing on to join this universe’s Suicide Squad.But what caused many to want him to stay was the wonderful plot shared between him and Diggle, in whichDeadshot had killed Diggle’s brother years before the show’s beginning, an action Diggle was never quick to forgive him for.
What Deadshot did to Diggle was horrible, andIt ended up setting the iconic character on the path that led him to Team Arrow in the first placeand supplied him with the determination and drive to do good in this world. So, while the world may have lost Andy Diggle to Deadshot, they gained the John Diggle we know from it, too.
8Nyssa Al Ghul (Katrina Law)
First Appearance:‘Arrow’ Season 2, Episode 13, “Heir to the Demon”
Nyssa Al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul, was a deadly assassinwith masterful swordsman skills andwas a powerful lesbian character.Trained by the League of Assassins to be an incredibly proficient swordsman,Nyssa added a whole new type of combat style to the show.Similarly, she added a whole new dynamic to the show through her relationship with Sarah Lance, which made the twothe first openly LGBTQ+ characters in theArrowverse—a big step for the year 2013.
Her skills would eventually lead to her taking over the infamous League of Assassins and rightfully disbanding them. Her inclusion asone of the universe’s first open lesbian charactersprovided value to those watching the show, who identified similarly, as shegrew to be a source of great representationwith how wonderful her love for Sarah was written, especially about Sarah’s death and resurrection in Season 3.
7Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo)
First Appearance:‘Arrow’ Season 6, Episode 6, “Promises Kept”
If a superhero doesn’t have aseemingly untouchable drug lord/crime boss villain, are they really a superhero? That’s exactly what made Ricardo Diaz a tough villain for Team Arrow.Diaz was essentially, for lack of a better word, untouchable,obtaining this status through hisblackmailing and bribery of politicians, the police department and other key social figuresin Starling City, as well as taking control of the criminal organization known as Quadrant.
Diaz became so untouchable that he shifted the course of the series forever, with Oliver being forced toturn himself over to the F.B.I. and expose his secret identity to the entire worldin trade for their help in taking down his reign of terror. Oliver’s life would never be the same after this run-in with Diaz and neither would the show.
6Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White)
First Appearance: ‘Arrow’ Season 2, Episode 2, “Identity”
Everybody loves a good and well-executed redemption arcandBronze Tiger, also known as Ben Turner, offered one ofArrow’s best.That story arc made him an incredibly compelling villain throughout his arc, and Team Arrow would have a couple of run-ins with Bronze Tiger before his eventual turn, with each one cementing himself more and more as a villain.
During his time in Iron Heights, Oliver would discover that Bronze Tigerhad been framed for killing a prison guard by another inmateafter he was the one who took him down, taking pity on him and feeling guilty for his unintentional corroboration of the crime. Oliver promised Bronze Tiger that he would help him have a second chance, through his connections at A.R.G.U.S. Bronze Tiger would eventually bereleased just in time to aid Team Arrow in taking down Emiko and the Ninth Circle.
5Ra’s Al Ghul (Matthew Nable)
First Appearance: ‘Arrow’ Season 3, Episode 4, “The Magician”
No one ever physically bested Oliver in battle as tremendously as Ra’s Al Ghul did, which is exactly what made him such a harrowing villain to watch from week to week. Going into Season 3, many felt the stakes couldn’t get much higher than Deathstroke and his super-soldier army in the season prior; but Ra’s redefined the stakes of the show by stabbing Oliver through the chest and kicking him off a mountaintop inArrowSeason 3, Episode 9, “The Climb”.
With Oliver never having been beaten so badly before,the stakes of the show skyrocketed to a whole new level,with the chances of overcoming the League of Assassins leader seeming slimmer and slimmer by the day. These heightened stakes not only made him a terrifying villain but aided in keeping the show alive through apoorly received Season 3.When the show hit its lowest moments, Ra’s was a consistent highlight among critics.
4Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough)
First Appearance: ‘Arrow’ Season 4, Episode 1, “Green Arrow”
What made manyArrowfans go crazy for Damien Darhk was the fact thathe was the first season-longvillain of the show with magical abilities.This made the obstacle of taking him and H.I.V.E. down for good grow exponentially, asTeam Arrow had never been truly equipped to face off with a villain with magic.This also made Damien an unstoppable force in all of his encounters with the Arrow and forced our heroes to get creative in ways they had never needed to before.
Damien’s reign of terror in Starling City would reshape the lighter tone the show was adjusting to in the earlier parts of Season 4 after he used his abilities to murder series regular Laurel Lance, which would cause Oliver to end up breaking his “no-kill rule” to make him pay for his crimes against Laurel.
3Prometheus (Michael Dorn)
First Appearance:‘Arrow’ Season 5, Episode 1, “Legacy”
While many had tried and done a number on Oliver, no one would truly break the titular hero, like former Starling City District Attorney Adrian Chase, also known by his real name of Simon Morrison,and his serial killer alter-ego, Prometheus.Fueled by revenge for murdering his father back when Oliver operated as “The Hood”,Prometheus would capture and torture Oliver, trying to break him down into a shell of the man he once was.
During a time in which some fans thought the show hadlost its wayand misplaced the spark that made it so enjoyable in the first place, Prometheus came in as an ignition to said spark with his tie-in to Oliver’s early years. Prometheus' torture would prove so terrible thathe eventually got Oliver to admit that he did like killing,a topic he had been struggling with ever since taking Damien Darhk’s life in Season 4.
2Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman)
First Appearance:‘Arrow’ Season 1, Episode 4, “An Innocent Man”
Being included in Season 1 ofArrowto the series' end, through three seasons ofThe Flashand three seasons ofLegends of Tomorrow, Malcolm Merlyn wasn’t just one ofArrow’s best villains, but one of theArrowverse’s best villains through hisconstant meddling, antagonism and his deep-rooted connectionswith Oliver and Team Arrow.
The sheer number of appearances Malcolm has throughout theArrowverse, most of which he’s an antagonist or anti-hero of some sort, secured his place in the list of absolute fan favorites. Consistently betraying everyone he comes in contact with and acting out of self-gain made him a man never to be trusted. But Malcolm also comes with many personal connections to Oliver, being the father of his best friend, Tommy Merlyn, and Oliver’s sister, Thea.The character is so deeply rooted in the show that you almost can’t mention it without him.
1Deathstroke (Manu Bennett)
First Appearance:‘Arrow’ Season 1, Episode 13, “Betrayal”
Deathstroke is an iconic villain withinArrowfor a myriad of reasons, but the most prominent of such being how masterfully he was written throughout his time on the show. Starting as a character that only existed in the flashback story line in Season 1, Slade Wilson was built up for quite some time before making a present-day comeback in Season 2. This gave the writing team plenty of time to build him up as a character the audience cared about and sympathized with before making him go bad.
Not only had audiences grown to love Slade as a character, but he and Oliver were in the Lian Yu struggle together. So, upon them going head-to-head in Season 2 andSlade going as far as to kill Oliver’s mother,the audience felt the pain being depicted in the scenes and cared about where Deathstroke was going to end up.
