Stephen Amell is ARROW.
The shadows continue to spread over the DC Universe, most recently with ARROW, the new reimagining of The Green Arrow as a driven, bow-wielding vigilante for justice, determined to clean up the corruption of his home town of Starling City. With its dark ambiance, its intense, parkour-inspired action sequences, and its LOST-style central mysteries (what, exactly, happened on the island that millionaire playboy Oliver Queen was stranded on for five years?), the show’s made a memorable debut, chalking up healthy ratings for the CW network.
New York Comic Con hosted press roundtables for the show, and we were there to capture the conversation with all the participants. Featured, in order: Willa Holland, who plays Thea Queen, sister to wealthy scion Oliver Queen; Katie Cassidy, who’s crusading reporter Dinah “Laura” Lance in the show; executive producer Marc Guggenheim; and Stephen Amell, who plays Oliver Queen, the feckless playboy who spends five years stranded on a island and returns a much, much different man.
Click on the player to hear the interviews.
According to TV WIRE , Katie Cassidy (SUPERNATURAL has been cast as Dinah “Laurel” Lance, love interest to Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) in the CW pilot THE ARROW.
In the DC Green Arrow comic books, Dinah Lance is also the Black Canary, the ebony clad superhero with a supersonic blasting power. However, we may not see her don that jacket and fishnets, as the revisionist TV series seems be presenting her as Laurel Lance, a “young attorney with the City Necessary Resources Initiative” whose relationship with Oliver Queen may be largely past tense.
Also cast are Susanna Thompson (ONCE AND AGAIN) as Oliver’s mother Moiria (apparently still living) and David Ramsey (DEXTER) as “an ex-military/special forces type” who is is now employed by Queen in a security role. Black Canary in DC's Green Arrow comic books
Online sources (via ComicBookMovie) that claim to have read the script indicate that Oliver Queen is returning to “Starling City” (Star City in the comics) after being marooned for five years on an island after an incident that took the lives of his father and a girlfriend — Laurel Lance’s sister.
The castaway story is part of the DC Comic’s character’s origin. The details have been changed and tweaked for a certain amount of soap opera for the now young female-slanting network, I would imagine.
The pilot was written by GREEN LANTERN film alumni Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, with Andrew Kreisberg (FRINGE, WAREHOUSE 13). David Nutter (SMALLVILLE) will direct the Warner Brothers Television pilot. Addendum: Here’s the CW’s Character descriptions for THE ARROW
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. 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. 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. (via MTV)
