In another fabulous crossover, ARROW is recruiting VIXEN from the CW Seed. For those unfamiliar with the animated series, it is brief 5-6 minute installments on cwseed.com, and those installments have been combined into one 30-minute origin story.
For fans of ARROW or THE FLASH, Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin, Emily Bett Rickards and Carlos Valdes provide the voices for their animated selves.
The actress who voices VIXEN/Mari Jiwe McCabe is Megalyn Echikunwoke who plays the live action version of VIXEN on tonight’s ARROW. (The producers of ARROW and THE FLASH also produce the web series.)
Tonight on ARROW, Oliver travels to Detroit to ask Mari for help. As seen last week, Damian Dahrk (guest star Neil McDonough) has taken Oliver’s son. Given Dahrk’s penchant for violence, the future of young William and the child’s mother, Samantha (Anna Hopkins), may be bleak.
Since Dahrk practices magic, Green Arrow’s only way to retrieve young William may be with a magical weapon of his own…VIXEN.
For those unfamiliar with Vixen, here is a quick backstory. Mari McCabe, like many heroes, grew up without her parents and never felt like she “fit in” with others. She was placed in foster care and was fortunate enough to have foster parents who loved her.
It was not until she was a young woman in the fashion industry that she found out that she was originally from Africa and had been given a magical totem necklace that had been part of her family.
Her magic allows Mari to draw power, courage and mysticism from the animal kingdom, channeling various traits, like the speed of a cougar, the power of a lion or the strength of an elephant. She also can draw powers from extinct or mythical creatures like a sabre-tooth tiger or a dragon.
Who better to deal with deviant Damien Dahrk than another possessor of magic? Using her magical ability, Vixen gets a lock on Darhk’s location and Team Arrow goes to war.
When Felicity (Rickards) finds out that Oliver (Amell) has kept his son a secret from her, there may not be enough magic in the universe to stop that argument.
On another family front, Thea (Willa Holland) has a heart-to-heart talk with Malcolm (John Barrowman). Will he own up and tell her that he is on Team Dahrk?
ARROW also stars Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey and Paul Blackthorne. Guest stars Jimmy Akingbola, Parker Young, Ryan Robbins, Elysia Rotaru, Nickolas Baric, Fraser Corbett, Justin Doran, Chenier Handul and Jack Moore.
Executive Producer, Marc Guggenheim, wrote the story for tonight’s episode, “Taken,” with the teleplay written by Co-Producer Keto Shimizu & writer for both ARROW and VIXEN, Brian Ford Sullivan. Gregory Smith directed the episode.
ARROW airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW (U.S.) and CTV (Canada).
