'Arrow' season 5 air date, spoilers news 2016: A look at one of the most fearsome foes Oliver will ever face
A teaser for "Arrow" season 5 has just dropped, giving fans a glimpse of the new big bad coming to Star City to get the attention of Green Arrow (Stephen Amell).
Tobias Church, as he was referred to in the casting notes, will be going after Oliver Queen in the new season. The villainous character is played by "The Walking Dead" alum Chad L. Coleman.
The "Arrow" season 5 baddie is described as "an imposing gangster looking to unite the various criminal enterprises in Star City under his own singular command."
This is exactly what he was doing in the trailer, where he appeared to be delivering a pep talk to the criminals he managed to gather. "Green Arrow can't be stopped, unless we work together," he said.
Church was inspired by the character of Stringer Bell from the HBO crime drama "The Wire." He was played by Idris Elba. Interestingly, Coleman was also on the show. He played the role of reformed criminal Dennis "Cutty" Wise.
The actor will appear as Church on the premiere of "Arrow" season 5, which means that he will be starting his troublemaking early on in the new season.
It appears that there won't be any magic involved in Church's bid to stop the Green Arrow as executive producer Wendy Mericle promised that the new season will be free of magic unlike the last one.
"The show was always meant to be a gritty crime drama at its heart. And then Flash came along, and oh my gosh, we have meta powers. And then Damien was, well, we haven't done magic on the show, let's try to do that," Mericle told IGN.
"I think for Season 5, just because it is an answer to Season 1, and we are sort of closing this chapter out, we did want to go back to our roots and figure out what is specific to this show. What is our universe? Go back to, 'What is Arrow?'" she continued.
"Arrow" season 5 will premiere Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. EDT on The CW.