Season 4 of the American superhero drama TV series “Arrow” on The CW is currently on its customary winter break so other than speculations about possible spoilers in its mid-season premiere episode on January 20, 2016, rumors have also started swirling that the current season will be the last for lead actor Stephen Amell.
Amell has been playing the role of Oliver Queen, a.k.a. the Green Arrow, on the top-rating “Arrow” TV series since 2012. The show actually started the DC universe on TV that resulted to two spinoffs on The CW already in “The Flash” which began in 2014, and the upcoming “Legends of Tomorrow,” set to debut on January 21, 2016.
“Arrow” has also partially set the stage for the movie based also on DC Comics, “Suicide Squad” due to hit theaters in August of next year.
So when rumors started swirling around that Season 4 of “Arrow” is going to be the last for Stephen Amell as he is planning to cross over to the Marvel cinematic universe, it hardly caused alarm bells on Warner Bros, The CW, or the DC Comics people. Apparently, they are very confident that Amell is a DC guy and will remain one in the years to come.
How the rumors started
The rumors about Amell bolting the DC fence and jumping over Marvel began when he recently interacted with fans on social media. He has to actually deal with some 90,000 inquiries then.
During the highly entertaining video, he was asked by fans about the possibility of playing a Marvel Comics superhero. Instead of shunning it directly, Amell gamely said that he was more than willing to take on a part in the Marvel cinematic universe if he was approached with an offer.
He said he is up for movie roles. But he admitted that he have not read Marvel Comics before as he was always a DC guy even before he was a DC guy. Amell added that if he is offered an awesome Marvel superhero in the movie, he would not hesitate to accept it, notes the Inquisitr.
Fans and critics of the Marvel cinematic universe believe that the best that Marvel can offer to Amell to play a superhero role is the villain-turned-good-guy Nighthawk as the character resembles Oliver Queen. They also think that Stephen Amell could also play a role in the upcoming sequel of “Guardians of the Galaxy” or he could also play the role of the Punisher.
For a very popular actor in the DC TV universe, it would really be far-fetched for Stephen Amell to take on such second-liner Marvel superhero characters. The only way Marvel can pull him out from DC is if he is offered a popular Marvel character in the movie. Anything less would come out as almost an insult.
With that being said, it is unlikely that Amell will leave “Arrow” after Season 4 because staying on the TV series offers him the prospect of taking his character to the big screen in the distant future, especially now that Warner Bros has already committed to expanding the DC Cinematic Universe in the movies starting with the upcoming showing of “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” due to hit theaters on March 25, 2016.
Stephen Amell will also be seen in a movie next year as he is confirmed to play a role in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Half-Shell.”
Vixen jumping on the ‘Arrow’
The CW has recently announced its upcoming animated series “Vixen” which is also based on DC Comics.
While the upcoming live-action TV series “Legends of Tomorrow” is a spinoff of both “Arrow” and “The Flash,” “Vixen” is not a spinoff of any of the two shows.
Incidentally, the launching of “Legends of Tomorrow” will start with crossover episodes with “The Flash” and “Arrow” in the third week of January next year.
Vixen did not appear on “Arrow” before headlining her own TV series but apparently her character is set to make the jump from animation to live-action. Reports have it that Mari McCabe, a.k.a Vixen, is expected to appear in the second half of “Arrow,’ notes Screen Rant.