In addition to giving Oliver Queen a sister, another derivation from previously known continuity from Green Arrow comics in the new CW TV series Arrow is that the character’s mother is very much alive and played by the fantastic Susanna Thompson of Once and Again, Kings and Star Trek fame.
Moira Queen is not your typical distressed mother; there are some layers to her, and once you get into the show you’ll see why keeping one of Oliver Queen’s parents alive was a very good idea. For Thompson, taking on a comic book inspired project was something new. “It’s a world that I’m not familiar with, in terms of the comic book world; but it’s an exciting world to discover and to research,” Thompson admits. “On the surface, I could look at it as a very big, dramatized, melodramatic world, but really, we’re here to tell a story and make it as honest and authentic as possible in human terms. [Director] David Nutter was very clear and I loved that. You’ve got a grieving mother on one hand who is meeting her son after five years, after thinking he was dead, and then another part of her, that is the survivor, that needs to make sure her whole family survives, that needs to find out more. It’s an interesting line to walk,” she continues.
This desire to protect her family is something that becomes very clear as early as the series premiere. “She will do just about anything to keep her family safe,” Susanna says. “There’s more than meets the eye by the end of the pilot, and it just keeps growing.”
There is a lot of history with Robert and Moira Queen that is left to explore in the series; might that mean we’ll get to see their relationship in flashbacks? Susanna says that they haven’t so far, but “it would be interesting.” “I keep thinking, are they going to play that with the cast and the rest of the family, but so far it’s really been Oliver’s journey. Andrew [Kreisberg] has really talked very much about the island life, the Arrow life and the family life. He’s kept them separated,” she says.
One part of the Queens’ past might be the “Well-Dressed Man,” played by John Barrowman. The casting of Barrowman excited one particular member of Susanna Thompson’s family for sure. “My niece, who is in her first year at UCSD went to Comic-Con, and she’s always going to Comic-Con, and the year I was there with Kings, she didn’t come to see our forum; she was there for Twilight or something,” Thompson recalls. “This year, I wasn’t able to go because we had started filming, so I texted her and asked if she had seen the show, and she said, ‘yes, amazing,’ and that’s all I heard from her. Then I did my first episode with John, and I get a text saying, ‘Oh my God, I know this might be completely inappropriate, but I heard you’re working with John Barrowman, and can you please get me an autograph?!’ That’s all that’s important to her,” Susanna laughs.
“He’s very sweet,” Thompson adds about Barrowman, noting that the show’s producers all came on set with their children, all lined up to meet him with as much enthusiasm as her niece surely would have in the same situation.
Between interacting with well dressed men, getting remarried to Strictly Come Dancing superstars (Colin Salmon plays Moira’s new husband “Walter Steele”), and dealing with two children in ways you’ll have to see to believe, Moira Queen is going to be one of Arrow’s biggest surprises. You can see Susanna Thompson on the series premiere of Arrow in one week – Wednesday, October 10 on The CW! Visit GreenArrowTV for the latest Arrow news!
DISCLAIMER: Travel and hotel arrangements for our Arrow set visit were provided by Warner Bros. Television.
