ARROW Casts Deathstroke Without the Mask

Deathstroke fans, you're finally going to be able to see and hear Slade Wilson without his mask on the CW series Arrow.

Entertainment Weekly announced that the role of Deathstroke has been recast with Spartacus star Manu Bennett, who plays Crixus on the Starz action series that ends in 2013. 

The DC Comics supervillain appeared previously in the November 7th episode "Damaged" and was played by stuntman Jeffrey C. Robinson.  During a flashback sequence of Oliver Queen's early days being marooned on the island of Lian Yu, Deathstroke is introduced as part of a mercenary group led by Eddie Fyers to locate the hooded archer Yao Fei, and tortures Oliver without actually saying anything.

It's not known when Bennett will appear as Slade Wilson's alias Deathstroke, so it may be a little while before Oliver connects Wilson to the island mercenary who tortured him.  Another mystery is whether Bennett will be sporting Wilson's traditional eyepatch in present day scenes after it was hinted in the pilot that Oliver may have taken Deathstoke's right eye before leaving Lian Yu. 

EW claims that Wilson and Oliver will form "an uneasy alliance" during additional Lian Yu flashbacks, while their insider simply commented, "You’ll just have to keep watching Arrow."