Stephen Amell, who portrayed Oliver Queen in The CW's Arrow, recently weighed in on James Gunn's new DC Universe and the potential casting of the new franchise's Green Arrow.
Season 9 of The CW's The Flash series recently wrapped up, bringing an official end to DC's Arrowverse after over a decade of continuously running on television.
Amell suited up one final time as Green Arrow in The Flash's final season, and the actor even recently stated that he doesn't think that was his last appearance as Oliver Queen.
With James Gunn's new DCU being primed and ready to begin with Superman: Legacy on July 11, 2025, anything is possible in regards to who could be brought in.
Stephen Amell Talks About James Gunn's DCU
During a Whatnot live autograph signing, The CW's Arrow star Stephen Amell was asked about James Gunn and Peter Safran's upcoming DCU, specifically how he feels regarding someone else portraying Green Arrow.
In response, Amell stated that he "get[s] mixed messages" about the entire situation and that he "wish[es] everyone nothing but the best:"
"I don’t know, man. I don’t know. Those guys, the DCEU, they need to decide if they think that they’re better than television or if they want to participate. Because I get mixed messages, which to me just signals that, I don’t know. You guys do your own thing. We did our thing. I wish everyone nothing but the best. I want nothing more than amazing movies, but right now, they need us a lot more than we need them."
The veteran actor went on to call himself "a custodian for" the character of Oliver Queen and compared himself to Tom Welling, the actor that played Superman in Smallville:
"I am a custodian for Oliver Queen, and [Grant Gustin] is a custodian for Barry Allen in the same way that… look, I don't think anyone's asking Tom Welling how he feels about who's going to play the new Superman."
However, Amell accepted the fact that "there will be another Oliver Queen" at some point, and he thinks "it'll be new and cool and exciting" when it happens:
"Now, I get the proximity and stuff like that, but there will be another Oliver Queen. There will and it'll be new and cool and exciting and however much the internet hates it is probably a direct indication as to how good it's going to be."
The Arrow star also added that he believes whoever is chosen to take up the mantle of Green Arrow "will do an amazing job:"
"You've got to remember that these people aren't picked at random. Very, very smart people think long and hard about how they're going to go about this, and I'm sure that whoever they pick, if in fact they do, maybe they don't care about the character, I don't know, will do an amazing job."
Will Green Arrow Appear in the DCU?
James Gunn's upcoming DCU is planned out to be a massive interconnected universe similar to Marvel Studios' MCU.
At the current moment, there hasn't been any confirmation that Green Arrow or any of the rest of the Arrowverse will be a part of the DCU.
Gunn already unveiled his plans for Chapter 1 of the DCU, which is titled Gods and Monsters, and none of the project titles gave any indication that they would include Oliver Queen.
However, fans have to remember that this is just Chapter 1. After the final project in the already-announced slate comes out, that won't be the end of the DCU.
Perhaps the sharpshooting archer is being saved for Chapter 2. As previously mentioned, Chapter 1 is called Gods and Monsters, and as seen in the Arrow series, the character can work as a street-level hero when he isn't involved in something such as the Justice League.
In short, Oliver Queen is a popular DC hero that has been around for an extremely long time, and it is highly likely that he will show up in Gunn's DCU at some point.
Many fans would likely rejoice if Stephen Amell was the one to don the bow and arrow, but Gunn's Green Arrow will likely be played by someone different.
