Arrow: David Ramsey Talks Original Team Arrow, Prometheus

Diggle returned to Team Arrow this week for the first time in Arrowseason five after a relatively self-contained early season character arc. What was the reintegration like for both Diggle and David Ramsey? Den of Geek was part of a group of journalists who had the chance to talk with Ramsey on the set of Arrowyesterday. Here’s what he had to say…

Ramsey admitted that returning to the Arrow lair set after an extended absence “did feel kind of weird,” comparing it to Stephen Amell’s time away from Team Arrow in Arrowseason three…

Everyone kind of inside jokes he wasn’t a part of, a little bit. They kind of had this little comradery I wasn’t a part of. I was like, uh, no more OTA. But they were great. The adjustment happened very quickly. Now we’re having fun.

Ramsey teased that Diggle’s relationship with Rene that we saw starting to form in “Human Target” will continue, saying:

Wild Dog and I form a special relationship. He is a military guy, like I am. He also has some post-traumatic stress as well. There is kind of a similarity in their background. We kind of take to each other in a real way. We have some really nice scenes, he and I particularly. So the new recruits, I do fraternize with them a bit, but Wild Dog and Diggle really hit it off.

With so many new faces in the Arrow cave, does this mean Original Team Arrow is a thing of the past?

That’s a Powers That Be question, but I don’t think [OTA is over]. We get back to it. I like that they’re breathing new life into the show, and bringing in new characters. They are all interesting, all awesome. And there is more stuff to come with these characters. But I don’t think we’re done with the OTA.

That’s the bedrock of the show, and I don’t think I’m misspeaking when I say that. I think we’re really getting into what we talked about at the beginning of the season, which is the show getting back into the Season 1, Season 2, nuts-and-bolts thug street-level crime fighting show, which I think the show got away from. And these characters serve that.

Ramsey also spoke about the dynamics specifically between Diggle and Oliver, noting that we are “still see[ing] some of the remnants of that role reversal, where Oliver is serving as a mentor, a helpful hand, a reasonable voice for Diggle who is still in grief.” Ramsey added that it’s not just his brother he is griefing, but Laurel and the guilt he feels in her death: “There is still some of that feeling as if he deserves this punishment.”

As for #Delicity, Ramsey said that he hopes to see more scenes between the two friends moving forward, but didn’t tease anything specific, instead reminiscing about the early Arrowdynamic, saying:

I hope you get to see the three of them more in general … I remember watching the show in the first and second season and there was like an assignment they would go on and Felicity would be at the helm and Oliver and Diggle would be like in the field and she’d be controlling things and opening up doors that shouldn’t be opened up by a computer, and that was so much fun, right?

I miss that a little bit, so I hope we kind of get more of that. But there’s 23 episodes. That’s a lot of writing. That’s a lot of work. Nine months we’re shooting this show. So there’s a big story to tell and now you have more characters to tell that story … I don’t think I’m misspeaking in that I think the show really does hinge on those three and that relationship between the three. I think they’ll get back to that in full.

Now that Diggle is back on Team Arrow, how does he feel about the increasingly-urgent search for Prometheus? Ramsey teased:

His reaction to Prometheus is the same as it was with Darhk, the same as it was with all of our other villains. He needs to be taken out. That simple. Diggle’s the straight guy. They can depend on that.

Check out our interview with Stephen Amell, in which he talks about what’s next for Oliver now that Susan Williams is onto his Bratva past.