Arrow Exclusive: Celina Jade on Shado's New Partnership with Oliver

Arrow's Oliver Queen has a new lady in his life.

Shado (Celina Jade), the DC Comics character who has quite the tumultuous relationship with Oliver (Stephan Amell) in the graphic novels, will finally get to see some action on the CW series. We briefly met her in "The Odyssey," where it was revealed that Fyers (Sebastian Dunn) had been holding her captive in order to keep her father Yao-Fei (Byron Mann) in line. But she won't be in captivity for long thanks to Oliver and Slade (Manu Bennett).

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"She will team up with Slade and Oliver to get on the rescue mission to save her father and escape the island," Jade tells TVGuide.com. "Somehow they have to come up with a way to leave the island."

Fans of Green Arrow expecting Shado to be like her comic-book counterpart should think again. "First of all, she's not Japanese," Jade says with a laugh. "In the comics, Shado was the daughter of the Yakuza. Here... she's a lawyer fighting to free her father from being banished to the island by the Chinese government.

"When I first got the audition for Shado, I went online and subscribed to DC Comics and read a bunch on Shado and the Yakuza, just to get to know her character better," Jade continues. "In the comics, her family value system is so high and it echoes Oliver's as well. He's basically going through all the names in his dad's book and going after the villains."

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But there will be some major similarities — and not just her status as the original girl with a dragon tattoo. "Shado is an excellent martial artist," Jade says, noting that shooting her stunts has been very empowering. "She's also trained in archery. We'll see more of that in upcoming episodes where she teaches Oliver a signature move."

Surprisingly, Slade will be OK with Shado sticking around, especially considering it may take some of the responsibility off of him. "Slade's a little bit surprised by her marital arts skills," Jade says. "Her fighting might even be better than Slade's. Slade's been having trouble teaching Oliver how to do martial arts. Shado comes from different sort of training, so she'll have a go at teaching Oliver how to fight. In the end, they're on the same team. They want to save Yao-Fei and get off the island."

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Shado may teach Oliver more than just martial arts — if you know what we mean. "We'll see some romantic tension between the two," Jade says. "Because Shado is a lawyer, she reminds Oliver of Laurel [Katie Cassidy]. There's a good relationship there."
Considering Oliver has a matching dragon tattoo in present day, that seems like an understatement. While it remains unclear if we'll actually see Shado off the island, Jade suggests the relationship between her character and Oliver goes deep. "I don't think Oliver would get a tattoo that is the same as hers if it was just a convenient relationship," she jokes. "Otherwise he'd have many tattoos on him!"

Are you excited to see more of Shado?

Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.