Arrow will be airing its final season premiere tonight on the CW. Stephen Amell, who has played Oliver Queen/Green Arrow for the past 8 or so years, has a lot of thoughts on the show’s run and the impact it had on his life. He reflected on all of this while talking with Entertainment Weekly, starting with when Amell knew it was time to end the series. Amell said:
Amell clarified that, although there are definitely seasons he enjoyed more than others, he’s always “loved” the series and the creative direction of the show was never the reasoning behind the desire to end his tenure under the hood. The actor went on to say that the reason he wanted to leave the show was due to spending more time with his family and raising his daughter in Los Angeles. For those who don’t know, most Arrowverse shows are filmed in Canada and take a ton of time to produce each season.
Later on in the interview, EW asked Amell when he thought Arrow was at its best:
It’s at its best in season 2 when Sara reappears. I’m thinking as I read the script, ‘Okay, cool, she’s coming back and the big reveal is going to happen when her dad Quentin [Paul Blackthorne] gets to see her again. That’s probably not going to happen for a couple of episodes.’ Nope, [it happened in] act three. That’s when Arrow is at its best. Greg used to say all the time, ‘You have a hit TV show until you don’t, so don’t save s—t.’”
Arrow began as a more grounded series during its first few seasons but this upcoming final season is definitely going to go off the rails, in terms of realism. Here’s what Amell had to say when asked about how he felt regarding the upcoming season:
All in all, this was a pretty awesome interview filled with many more interesting quotes and stories from Amell’s audition to his growth as an actor and a person to Arrow “as you know it” ending with the season 7 finale. You can check out the full Entertainment Weekly interview here.
Arrow will return tonight on the CW at 9:00 PM EST.
