SDCC Interview: Stephen Amell Previews Arrow’s Next Chapter

It’s time for another interview from this year’s Comic-Con! Today the spotlight goes to our Captain, Stephen Amell, as he talks about Arrow’s next chapter and how Oliver may have changed as well as how he might react to certain things. Please note that this interview was conducted BEFORE some announcements, including the reveal of Oliver’s new costume, were made at the “Night of DC Entertainment” panel at Comic-Con.

“We’re 69 episodes into the show, and I do really feel like the first chapter of the show has come to a close,” he told a table full of reporters at this year’s Comic-Con. “Literally — we drove off into the sunset. We’ve taken Oliver through his first chapter; meanwhile, we’ve taken all of our other crew members – they are getting a new chapter as well. They have graduated to where we found Oliver at the beginning of the series, minus the suicidal tendencies, probably.”

Oliver Queen has certainly changed, and it sounds like the character will be more light-hearted when we see him again. “I’m excited that there are wrinkles and elements to the character this year that really fall a lot closer to my personality. It’s funny, when I would meet people during Season 1 and Season 2 and I’d crack a joke, and they’d be like ‘oh, you’re not like that guy!’ I’m not like that guy at all. There were a lot of things about that guy that I didn’t like. So, I’m really hoping that these new elements really breathe some fresh air to the show. I’m incredibly excited about this season, having read three episodes and talked about where things are going, new cast members, interactions between existing cast members… It’s gonna be great,” he said.

Stephen was asked about Damien Dahrk and the kind of relationship he and Oliver had, and for now, Stephen doesn’t know how that relationship exists. “Oliver knows precious little about Damien Dahrk. I don’t even know if he understands when Ra’s referred to a hive of operatives, that he meant H.I.V.E.. That’s Diggle knowledge. That’s not Oliver knowledge. But Damien brings elements to Starling City that, again, will, I think, help fuel our flashback story this year with Oliver,” he teased, refusing to give up details about the flashback story aside from the notion that they do spend time in Coast City where Oliver meets “an old friend.”

So where do things pick up? “He’s running, like always,” Stephen said. “He’s always running. In Season 2, in Season 2, in Season 3… he is running. Go back and watch. So he is running again this year. He will always be running, but he is in a very different spot. Oliver always tends to come into the new season with a new skill set, and he does have a new skill set this year; it’s just entirely related to domestic living.” Additionally, Oliver is “100%” accepting a chance at happiness. “Oliver is almost entirely at peace when we first see him,” Stephen explaine. “We see that both emotionally, in terms of his state, and I pitched an idea where we actually see a literal physical change that shows that he has moved past some of the things that have happened to him in the past several years.”

Is it the pointy goatee? “I can’t grow a pointy goatee. All that happens is more of this,” he said, pointing to his current state of facial hair.

Finally, if and when Sara Lance returns from the dead (as she is in the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow), how might Oliver respond to that? “I don’t know. I mean, I’m sure that his reaction is going to depend entirely on the state that she’s in,” Stephen answered. “We teased a lot of things about what the Lazarus Pit does to you in Season 3, and we haven’t quite explored them yet with someone that came out of the Lazarus Pit. Thea went into the Lazarus Pit kind of still alive, but just sort of in a state that modern medicine couldn’t bring her back. If Sara comes back to live in what one assumes happens via the Pit, Sara’s been dead like a year. So, that’s a very different thing.”

Arrow Season 4 begins October 7 on The CW. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see videos as soon as they are posted!