‘Quantico’ Star Russell Tovey Will Play a Gay Superhero in ‘Arrow’-Verse Crossover
Last year, The CW announced the first DC Comics show led by a gay superhero with Freedom Fighters: The Ray, an upcoming animated series on CW Seed. Today brings news of not only the actor who will voice the superhero, but live-action appearance on the upcoming Arrow-verse mega crossover event.
Looking and Quantico actor Russell Tovey will voice Raymond “Ray” Terrill, an openly gay superhero, on the animated series, according to TVLine. But most exciting, he’ll bring the character to the screen in the massive four-way crossover that finds Supergirl, Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow all teaming up. The DC character is the second to take up the nickname “The Ray” following his father, “Happy” Terrill. He first appeared in 1992’s The Ray #1 and has been Here’s the full description of the character from the Freedom Fighters synopsis:
Raymond “Ray” Terrill was a reporter who discovered a group of government scientists working on a secret project to turn light into a weapon of mass destruction. But before he could report on his findings, the project head exposed Ray to a “genetic light bomb.” The bomb failed to kill him and instead gifted Ray with light-based powers. With these abilities, Ray realized he could go beyond reporting on injustice – he could take action to help stop it. Calling himself The Ray, he was recruited by Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters to fight violence and oppression wherever it exists.
It’s been exciting to see the network continue to add more LGBTQ representation to their slate, despite The 100‘s indulgence in the Bury Your Gays trope and the loss (though not death) of Supergirl‘s Maggie Sawyer. Other queer characters on the network include Supergirl’s Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), Legends‘ Sara Lance (Caity Loitz), and The Flash‘s Captain David Singh (Patrick Sabongui).
The upcoming four-way Arrow crossover will take place on November 27, but in the meantime you can check out the first trailer for the Freedom Fighters animated series, set to bow later this fall.