'Arrow' Season 8's Deathstroke 2040 John Diggle Jr may become Team Arrow ally despite rebelling against family's hero legacy
'Arrow' Season 8 will be introducing Charlie Barnett as Deathstroke 2040, a grown-up version of John Diggle Jr., the son of John Diggle/Spartan (David Ramsey) and Lyla Michaels/Harbinger (Audrey Marie Anderson) and the adoptive brother of Connor Hawke (Joseph David-Jones). Living in the dismal future world of Star City 2040, John Jr. will be introduced as the leader of the Deathstroke gang, a group of violent individuals inspired by the original Deathstroke, Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett).
Trailers for the upcoming season had suggested John Jr. may be a villainous character but promotional pictures that have been released for the upcoming season suggest the future Deathstroke may end up working with the future Team Arrow. In the image, we see Connor standing with Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara) while a figure in a Deathstroke outfit stands behind them.
Mia has a knife out so it looks like they may be confronting an enemy but what's interesting is that the enemy doesn't appear to be John himself but someone else altogether. We know from comments made by Connor in the last season that John became part of the Deathstroke Gang as an act of rebellion against his parents, who always held their children to a high standard and expected them to uphold the family's heroic legacy.
Clearly John didn't handle this pressure too well and it seems he basically became a supervillain as a way of getting back at Diggle and Lyla. John and Connor make for an interesting pair. John, who is the biological son of not one but two heroes, ended up taking to villainy while Connor, who is the biological son of Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White), chose to become a hero.
The synopsis for the second episode reveals we will get to see their relationship explored in detail this season. Based on what we know so far, it looks like John Jr. isn't going to be an outright villain after all and he may end up becoming a hero or at the very least an anti-hero of some sort.
The official summary of season 8 episode 2 'Welcome to Hong Kong' goes: "THE RETURN OF TATSU -- Oliver (Stephen Amell), John (David Ramsey), Laurel (Katie Cassidy Rogers), and Tatsu (guest star Rila Fukushima) seek out an important person within The Monitor's (guest star LaMonica Garrett) plan. Connor (Joseph David Jones) has a heart to heart with his brother (guest star Charlie Barnett)."
'Arrow' Season 8 will begin airing on The CW October 15.