Stephen Amell on why Arrow had to end, and what he thinks of that DC Studios announcement
TV's Oliver Queen revealed all at Emerald City Comic Con 2023
Unsurprisingly, given that the show only ended back in January 2020, a significant portion of Saturday afternoon’s Emerald Archer in the Emerald City: Arrow Cast Reunion panel at Emerald City Comic Con was spent with panelists — including Oliver Queen himself, actor Stephen Amell — talking about the end of the CW series Arrow… and the chances of the show and the characters returning in a new era of DC shows and movies.
“The key for anything is timing. I mean, I went back to film on an episode of Flash this year for their last year. That showed me that I think we ended at the right time. Things are ending at the CW and that whole universe is wrapping up,” series star Amell tells the Main Stage crowd about the end of the series in 2020, although he added, “I anticipate doing more at some time.”
More of what, though? Later in the panel, the group was asked about the possibility of the Arrowverse characters being part of James Gunn’s new DC Studios era, which prompted a very well-worded response explaining that, while the Arrowverse might be coming to some kind of close — although the CW’s Superman and Lois will be continuing for the foreseeable future — the fan goodwill built up by the actors on the multiple shows that were part of the franchise means that the door isn’t closed on some kind of return to DC in the future.
When asked what advice Amell would give Gunn as he builds out the new DC Studios universe, the actor was very direct with his response: Call [Arrowverse executive producer] Greg Berlanti. That’s it. After the first season of Arrow, he called me into the office and laid out the whole thing,” meaning the Arrowverse as it would eventually become known, including The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl.
However, that doesn’t mean that Amell was entirely on board with the way things were going with DC Studios as things currently stand. “I see a lot of announcements about what they’re going to do with DC,” he continued. “You know what I’d rather see? Content. I don’t think anyone has ever gone to an IMAX to watch a press conference or read Twitter.”
There was more going on during the panel than simply Amell’s feelings about the end of Arrow and the future of DC, of course, including Colton Haynes revealing not just a plot line that didn’t come to fruition, but an entire character who didn’t make it onto the series despite being cast.
“When Steve Aoki was our DJ on the show, his sister [Devon Aoki] was supposed to play Cheshire,” Haynes revealed, to the surprise of the audience. In DC’s comic book mythology, Cheshire is a villain from the New Teen Titans series, an assassin who also happens to be the mother of Roy Harper’s child. “She was cast, but then they found out she was pregnant, so they nixed it altogether.” When Haynes said that he was uncertain how he felt about revealing that even years after the show has finished, Amell joked, “What are they gonna do? Are they gonna cancel [the show]?”
Of course, Haynes is no stranger to shows that return from the televisual grave, having recently appeared in MTV’s Teen Wolf movie. However, for those hoping for a similar revival of Arrow anytime soon, though, Haynes wanted to let them know they needed to remain patient: “I feel like we’re a couple years away from the reboot,” he told the crowd.
Start the countdown, just in case…
