It’s being reported today that Oliver Queen will be played by actor Stephen Amell for the upcoming Green Arrow pilot WB has ordered. The Canadian actor may be familiar to WB fans for his parts in The Vampire Diaries. He’s also had small roles in Hung, Private Practice, New Girl and CSI.
Honestly, I’m not impressed, but maybe that’s because I imagine my Oliver Queen as a bit older, bearded man with a bit of swagger in his step. This emo-lookin’ dude looks waaaaay to CW for my taste but, I have to be honest here, as a female comic book reader in my late 20’s who can’t stand most popular WB Shows (and Smallville made me want to claw my eyes out…) I’m really not the demographic the producers are hoping to reach.
It was also reported last month that the show would be called “Arrow” due to the less-than-stellar reception of both Green Hornet and Green Lantern. This is definitely another attempt at making the show more appealing to the non-comic readers out there who will be the ones watching this show – and it’s probably spot on because I can’t imagine Green Arrow readers make up a whole lot of their audience.
I can’t help but laugh when I look at Smallville Green Arrow…he’s wearing a $25 Halloween costume and he doesn’t even have a beard! This looks like Robin Hood had a fight with a roll of green plastic and duct tape and lost.
What do I wish we could see in a Green Arrow TV Show? Something akin to Green Arrow in the non-CW Universe, and especially to Kevin Smith’s Quiver from several years back, would make me jump for joy. Smallville brought us a watered down Oliver Queen that I couldn’t bear and the only animated Green Arrow I’ve really enjoyed in the past ten years was in Justice League: Unlimited. I’m pretty doubtful that Arrow will resemble anything close to the comics, and he probably won’t be anywhere near the super-liberal, socially-conscious hero who gives up his wealth and becomes a total badass that I’ve adored all these years.
The character description that Deadline posted makes me horrified. It simply reads that this version of Queen will be, “a wealthy playboy and billionaire industrialist-turned-outspoken politician in Star City.”
Ugh. Politician? This could go wrong in so many ways.
What do you think?