CW Network signs Stephen Amell to Green Arrow role

CW Network released the title for the new Warner Brothers TV series featuring Green Arrow yesterday, Arrow. And the network released the first casting decision for the show–30-year old Canadian TV actor Stephen Amell will portray the lead role of Oliver Queen aka the urban archer superhero Green Arrow. The new TV series will be directed by David Nutter with script by Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim. We offered a few suggestions to the writing team here a few days ago when the series was announced.

Green Arrow cover art — The look from last year's Brightest Day mini-series wouldn't be so bad

Amell has had roles on several TV series: New Girl, Hung, 90210 (2011), Vampire Diaries, Heartland, Beautiful People, and Queer as Folk. As long as he is sporting the goatee it seems like he could at least look the part. And he has played a gigolo on Hung, which no doubt plays into Oliver’s ladies’ man status.

Along with the characters you’d expect, a variety of websites have posted the casting type-list for the series, and at the quick pace the series is coming together we can probably expect more cast members to be announced soon:

OLIVER QUEEN
A 27 year old reformed bad boy, who after having spent five years shipwrecked on a tiny, brutally dangerous island in the South China Sea returns to town a different man. Or to be more specific, a tortured, thoughtful master of the bow with a ferocious determination to make a difference.

DINAH “LAUREL” LANCE
28 years old, smart sexy, Laurel is a legal aid attorney determined to use her life as a one-woman war against the 1% following the death of her younger sister Sara. A sister, who as luck would have it, just so happened to have died aboard Oliver’s yacht.

Chiang Arrow and Canary — Will the CW give Amell the energetic Cliff Chiang Green Arrow look?

TOMMY MERLYN
28 years old and devil-smooth, Tommy is a trustafarian like Oliver, a spectacularly rich young man whose life revolves around parties, clubs, liquor and lots of anonymous sex. Unlike Oliver, he can’t seem to understand his former best friend’s sudden change of lifestyle and direction.

MOIRA QUEEN
48 years old, a beautiful woman, Oliver’s mother Moira is a very wealthy woman who is not used to being shaken. Having remarried during the five years that former husband Robert and Oliver were both presumed dead, Moira has had free rein over the Queen billions. Not surprisingly, she’s deeply interested in learning whether or not Robert will also return unexpectedly, to ruin her present marriage and go over the books with a fine-tooth comb.

Will CW give Amell the cool Mauro Cascioli Green Arrow look?

JOHN DIGGLE
35 years old, African-American, Diggle is really, really big, a former military man who served with the Army Rangers in Afghanistan, and has been a bodyguard for hire for the last four years. Hired by Moira to be Oliver’s chauffeur and protector, Diggle soon finds he is trapped in a battle of wits, as Oliver repeatedly eludes his protection. But in fact, Diggle’s primary conflict is one of loyalty — he has to show that he’s working for Oliver, not Moira, before Oliver will give him a smidgen of trust.

THEA QUEEN
17 years old (suggest 17-22 years), Oliver’s Lolita-esque sister, Thea was a 12 year old girl when he went on his infamous yachting voyage — but now she’s a celebutante who’s testing the boundaries of acceptable behavior. Thea loved her big brother with all her heart, and is delighted to have him back in her life — but she’s spreading her wings, and is unprepared for Oliver to become the Bad Cop in the family, restricting her access to boys and drugs.

Cheesier smile — Actor Amell does have that cheesy Ollie smile

Definitely a lot of changes to past storylines, the series appears to be toying with the classic origin story and other than Oliver and Dinah, adding an entirely new character subset. The biggest missing character is Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern.

Queen stranded on island after yacht sinks — No doubt we'll see Oliver's origin story as part of the series or in flashback, like that seen in artist Jock's Green Arrow: Year One

As a CW production we can probably expect a fair amount of the teen primetime soap formula, but hopefully it will more of the Veronica Mars variety as opposed to the 90210 variety. I’m starting to get a bad vibe like this will be another show like ABC’s Revenge, spoiled rich kids acting…spoiled.

But we’ll reserve judgment til we actually see the pilot. And we can hardly wait!

Read tons more about our favorite superhero, Green Arrow, here.

C.J. Bunce

Editor

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