Arrow Season 3 is back on Colors Infinity from today at 9 pm. Stephen Amell, who plays Oliver Queen, talks about how, in this season, Oliver is all smiles and that many loose ends will be tied-up. Excerpts from an interview
What is different about Oliver Queen in season three of ArrowIJ
We find a happy and smiling Oliver Queen. It was weird to shoot because we don’t really know how Oliver smiles. The challenge was to find the perfect smile.
What about his love lifeIJ
There’s one lady in Oliver’s life in Season Three. Just one. And that woman is Felicity Smoak. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are together. Was he misleading herIJ Was it a misdirectionIJ Was it a ployIJ Was it a playIJ We resolve all of that stuff in the premiere, fully and absolutely. You get an abundantly clear picture of how they both feel about one another. It doesn’t mean they’re going to be together, though.
Is Oliver’s romantic connection to Sara and laurel lance officially overIJ
The ship has sailed on those romances. I don’t think we’ll ever see Oliver and Sarah, or Oliver and laurel together again. Well, they will be together but not ‘together-together’. They will be teammates. In the premiere, we discover the way that Oliver feels about Felicity. If we introduced more random love interests, it would undersell what we do in the premiere.
How would you describe the dynamic between Thea played by Willa Holland and OliverIJ
It’s all about unspoken things. Oliver made a commitment to Thea to be more honest with her. So when Oliver and Thea meet up, he is more honest with her. He reveals things that he’s never told her before; things he regrets very much. Their dynamic is certainly going to be different this year, and I’m excited for that.
What about Oliver’s relationship with other key charactersIJ
We find a changed dynamic between Oliver and Roy; We find Oliver and Diggle in a spot of conflict because of how much Oliver cares about Diggle. We find Oliver and laurel in an incredible place, too. Arrow and lance are also in a good spot.
Season three seems to tie up a lot of loose ends.
Yes. Absolutely. We didn’t leave on a huge cliffhanger at the end of season 2, like we left with season 1. But we certainly left a couple of loose ends. We tie up those loose ends at the start of season 2, but then we introduce a whole new set of problems.
Are you happy that you don’t have to answer any more Justice league movie questionsIJ
Yes! By the way, we have The Flash show now. We have Firestorm, we have Canary, we have The Atom. The actual Justice league filmIJ I don’t know when that’s coming out, but you can watch The Justice league on television. The reason I’m happy that I don’t have to answer that question anymore. We are stamping out our own spot, so I am glad that people know that now.
Has there been an instance where you struggled at a personal levelIJ
There is a part where Oliver comes to know he has a child and that really hit home for me. When we filmed that episode, my daughter was five months old. Besides the feelings it stirred up inside me personally, it was also my last scene with Sussana Thompson (who plays Moira Queen in the show).
How aware are you of the direction of your character throughout this seasonIJ
I’m really excited that we are moving to a spot where we will refer to my character as The Green Arrow. We are moving to a spot where we will continue to embrace the fundamental classic elements of the character because we have that license now. We’re 46 episodes in and people like it. They buy into it. But unless this character is evolving — The Hood to Arrow to The Green Arrow — then people are going to lose interest, so I always want there to be a journey for him. And this year’s journey is really interesting.