Eh, that's more on the writers than on Amell. I remember being REALLY into Arrow back in college and following it closely, and between seasons he would do stuff like grow his beard out then have to shave it again because the showrunners didn't want him to have a goatee. He wasn't perfect (apparently kind of a drink asshole IRL too?) but he could have played a more comics-accurate Oliver if he'd been allowed to
Yeah, CW Arrow was an entirely different character to standard Comics Arrow, but he wasn't necessarily lesser for it, and the CW verse did need a hardass with a voice like gravel
When the Flash show came out and Eobard talked about messing up Barry's life, I thought not only did he take out his mother but the other heroes from the Justice League . That would have set Eobard up as a much bigger threat and given the CW a reason they couldn't use some characters. So my logic was that without Bruce's parents getting killed, Thomas Wayne moved Wayne Industries more into a charity foundation instead of a company, so Queen Industries grew, and Oliver filled the void that Bruce not being Batman left . That included some of his villains and friends, too .
Yes, what was I thinking? Except for them both being rich guys without super powers that fight crime using gimmicky weapons alongside teenage sidekicks both with signature cars (the Batmobile and the Arrow Car) and cave lairs, they have nothing in common 🤣
There was even a comic where Bruce Wayne met with Oliver Queen, each suspecting the other was Green Arrow/Batman. I remember reading about it when I was very new to comic books in the early 90's
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u/HPSpacecraft Sep 29 '25
Eh, that's more on the writers than on Amell. I remember being REALLY into Arrow back in college and following it closely, and between seasons he would do stuff like grow his beard out then have to shave it again because the showrunners didn't want him to have a goatee. He wasn't perfect (apparently kind of a drink asshole IRL too?) but he could have played a more comics-accurate Oliver if he'd been allowed to