Stephen Amell has revealed that Warner Bros. killed a proposed Arrow movie. The actor played the role of Oliver Queen on The CW’s Arrow TV show for eight seasons. It’s the show that kicked off the ArrowVerse, which was a hugely important part of the DC Universe for a decade. Be that as it may, the brass at the top of the studio didn’t feel the universe was worth bringing to the big screen.
Amell was recently a guest on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast. Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor on Smallville, discussed the proposed Arrow movie with Amell. The actor explained that they tried to make a grittier version of his take on Green Arrow for the big screen. Sadly, WB just didn’t want to make it. Why? Amell believes it was a fear-based decision.
“We tried to do that. To my understanding, it just got killed at the studio level from people that, I think, were making decisions…that were fear-based.”
This lines up with what WB and DC were doing at the time. They were keeping what was happening in the Arrowverse and what was happening in the movie separate. That’s why The Flash movie didn’t star Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen. Instead, Ezra Miller took over the role in Justice League before getting a solo film last year.
At this point, the Arrowverse is dead. Arrow ended its run after eight seasons in 2020. That was the beginning of the end. The Flash, Batgirl and the rest of the shows slowly dropped like flies. The final domino fell when Superman & Lois was canceled last year. As it stands, no new actor has been cast to play Green Arrow in either a new film or on the small screen.
Here is the synopsis for Arrow season 8.
“Following the arrival of The Monitor, Oliver Queen left his home, his family, & his team behind to take on his most challenging battle yet, knowing the cost may be his life. But this time it’s not just his city he’s seeking to protect – it’s the entire multiverse! Oliver’s quest will send him on a journey where he is forced to confront the ultimate question: what is the true cost of being a hero?”
“I mean, I joked about it,” Amell also said on the podcast about the idea of an Arrow revival. Amell previously teased that Arrow season 9 could have happened. “I think that it would be wonderful one of these days to go back and do something that was in a medium where I could break bones and drop an F-bomb and just sort of go the ‘hard R’ [rated] version of Arrow.”
Arrow is now streaming on Netflix.
What do you think? Are you bummed about the movie? Or do you think Warner Bros. made the right call? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!
