Stephen Amell Wants To Be A Grittier, Darker Green Arrow In The DCU
Stephen Amell is open to returning as the Green Arrow, but wants to play a darker version of the character.
If you’re a fan of Stephen Amell’s portrayal of the Green Arrow, you’ll be delighted to know that he recently told TVLine he’s not necessarily done with the role yet. But the one caveat that Amell made apparent was that he would want to break away from the serialized treatment that he has done in the past with The CW‘s Arrow. Additionally, he would love to reprise the role for a movie or streaming series in the DC Universe that would lend itself to a darker, and grittier presentation of the billionaire playboy turned vigilante.
One of the issues to consider is scheduling, which is always a key factor in getting a series running. Considering that Stephen Amell has already portrayed Green Arrow for 170 episodes across eight seasons, you can’t blame him for wanting to return to the role in a limited capacity. In other words, Amell has other projects he’s working on that are taking up some time, like his lead role in the independent wrestling drama Heels, which just got renewed for a second season on Starz.
So it’s safe to say that even though Stephen Amell isn’t done with portraying Oliver Queen and his Green Arrow alter-ego just yet, he’s also too busy to commit to another series that would require a similar production schedule to Arrow. Not to mention that reprising the character in a movie would allow the production staff more creative liberties than the cable network treatment.
In other words, Stephen Amell would love to see Green Arrow’s fight sequences dialed up should he return to the role, because an added layer of intensity would only benefit the cinematography. In his interview with TVLine, he went on to say that they weren’t allowed to show any blood on the Arrow series, despite how intense some of the fighting was.
Considering his history with WWE, we already know that Stephen Amell is no stranger to over-the-top choreographed fighting, so it only makes sense to push any future iterations of Green Arrow to similar limits.
We also need to consider what is simply called “character fatigue.” We’ve seen David Hyde Pierce turn down reprising the iconic role of Niles Crane on the upcoming Frasier reboot because he feels that he already accomplished what he wanted to during the series’ original run. And when Stephen Amell briefly returned to his Green Arrow likeness on The CW’s The Flash, he jovially stated, “OK! That’s enough.”
But that’s still the network treatment that we’re talking about. So it’s not necessarily full-blown character fatigue in regard to Stephen Amell’s Green Arrow, but rather the fact that the vessel through which the role has already been delivered is not the way he wants to approach the role in the future.
In other words, his Oliver Queen/Green Arrow character still has a lot of potential through different mediums. Considering how complex of a character Oliver Queen is, a feature film, or a limited series would be able to explore some of the darker storylines with a level of nuance that we’re more familiar with on streaming platforms.
And Stephen Amell is right to enthusiastically consider this trajectory for Green Arrow. In fact, he’s stated that he loves portraying Oliver Queen because there are so many different roles tied to a singular character. So though we may never see Amell renew for another long-running series, we’re still holding out hope that one day he will return to the role of Green Arrow in new and exciting ways.
