Arrow star Stephen Amell has an interesting take on the upcoming season of the comic book-inspired The CW series. During the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, Amell not only participated in Warner Bros Television and DC Entertainment’s huge Super Hero Saturday Night panel and screenings, but he also sat down with the press for roundtable interviews in order to delve further into the upcoming fourth season.
“We’re 69 episodes into the show, and I do really feel like the first chapter – albeit it was over the course of three chapters – but the first chapter of the show has come to a close,” explained Amell. “Literally, we drove off into the sunset. So, life is still the same for some people and by the same I mean… I’m going to circle back because I actually just thought of this. We’ve taken Oliver through his first chapter, meanwhile we’ve taken all of our other core members, they are beginning a new chapter as well. They have graduated to where we found Oliver at the beginning of the series, minus his suicidal tendencies probably.”
“I’m excited. There are wrinkles and elements of the character this year that really fall a lot closer to my personality. It’s funny, when I’d meet people during season one and season two and I’d crack a joke, they’d be like, ‘Oh, you’re not like that guy.’ I’m not like that guy at all. There are a lot of things about that guy that I do like. I’m really hoping that these new elements breath some fresh air into 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 going to be great.”
Speaking of new cast members, season four finds Neal McDonough joining the cast as Damien Darhk. Asked how Darhk and Oliver will interact this coming season, Amell replied, “I don’t know how their relationship exists. I mean, Oliver knows precious little about Damien Darhk. I don’t even know if he understands that when Ra’s referred to a hive of operatives, that he meant an actual hive. I think that’s Diggle knowledge; that’s not Oliver knowledge. But, Damien brings elements to Starling City that, again, I think will help fuel our flashback story this year with Oliver.”
Although Amell did his best to avoid any specifics during the interview, he did tell us that at the beginning of the season Oliver will once again be running. “He’s running, like always. He’s always running. Season one, season two, and season three, he’s running. You go back and watch. So he is running again this year. He will always be running, but he’s in a very different spot,” said Amell. “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.”
That “domestic living” includes a true chance at happiness with Felicity, played by Emily Bett Rickards. “Oliver is almost entirely at peace when we first see him. 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 the past several years,” teased Amell.
Domestic tranquility doesn’t mean the entire season will be smooth going for Oliver. If/when Sarah returns, Amell says he’s not sure how Oliver will react. “I don’t know. His reaction is going to depend entirely upon the state that she is in. You know, we teased a lot of things about what the Lazarus Pit does to you in season three, and we haven’t quite explored them yet with someone that came out of the Lazarus Pit, Thea. But Thea went into the Lazarus Pit kind of still alive but in a state that modern medicine couldn’t bring her back. If Sarah comes back to life, and one assumes that it happens via the Pit, Sarah’s been dead like a year so that’s a very different thing.”
More on Season 4: Felicity Bett Rickards Interview
Watch the full interview with Stephen Amell on Arrow season four:
