With the seventh season of Arrow a month away, actor Stephen Amell could not be more ecstatic nor more candid about the influence on the series that has launched his career.
And it has much to do with another billionaire playboy-turned-vigilante.
At Heroes and Villains Fan Fest London, Amell explains, “When the show started the inspiration for the first season was absolutely, positively, The Dark Knight. [When] I was sitting in [pilot director] David Nutter’s office, it was just photos of The Dark Knight.”
The grounded tone and flow of the first season do indeed contain homages to Christopher Nolan’s epic take on Batman. The first two seasons of Arrow contained some of the most memorably gritty fight scenes, moody, introspective moments, and muted color palette in flashback scenes to distinguish it from the present.
What has helped is that Stephen has done 80% of his own stunt work. The gradual evolution of The Arrowverse – the shared continuity of spinoff shows The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl – influenced the path of Oliver Queen from hardened loner to the leader of his own superhero team. The Oliver today differs from the Oliver who returned home six years ago in that the elements from the Green Arrow comic counterpart have found their way into Amell’s version.
Most notably, Oliver’s fall from grace as mayor after his identity was exposed. Only through a deal with the FBI could he spare his team the fate that awaited him under the new Anti-Vigilante Act, even though the architect of his downfall, Ricardo Diaz, remains at large. And fans of Mike Grell’s immortal series took note of the nod to The Longbow Hunters in the finale as a potential future threat.
“I think we’re going to lean more into the comic, and canon, of Green Arrow this year, “ Stephen says. “The show is the show, and I am me. I feel like I’m in the greatest show right now. [We’re] not writing this like we’re guaranteed there’s something beyond this, because we’re not; nobody is. I want them to really push forward and take the fact that we have a creative license and a certain respect from the fans to take some chances.”
The seventh season of Arrow premieres on Monday, October 15th at 8/7 Central on the CW.
