Arrow’s Amell Discusses DC Crossover Outside CW

Stephen Amell, star of the CW television show Arrow, was one of the guests of Wizard World Philadelphia last weekend, a show which I was able to cover. He was available for autographs and photos at the Philadelphia Convention Center during the weekend (as was his Arrow co-star Katie Cassidy, who plays Laurel Lance/Black Canary), but the big moment was on Saturday when he took part in a question & answer panel.     During the panel, Amell answered many questions about his acting and what he sees for the future of Arrow. However, perhaps the most eye-opening moment of the panel came when Amell discussed the possibility of crossover among TV shows based on DC Comics properties – even outside of those on The CW Network. The other current DC Comics-based TV show on the CW is The Flash, and this show frequently crosses over with Arrow. The second DC spin-off for The CW will be 2016's Legends of Tomorrow. Amell rather brought up a different example – the recently-cancelled Constantine, which airs on NBC.   Amell said, “… There is an opportunity for interconnectivity with any DC television show that exists.” He then brought up Constantine. “Now, Constantine was an NBC show. I'm on The CW. I had had discussions with DC, so not NBC, not CW, but with DC Comics... DC Entertainment about guest starring on Constantine when it was still on the air. And that was and is on the table. So we have Flash, we have Legends of Tomorrow, a new show which is directly connected to the Arrow universe, we have Supergirl. She got picked up, directed by my good friend Glen Winter, which is amazing. That pilot, I can't wait to see it, I'm sure it's going to be amazing. There's Gotham obviously, and I'm missing something… Titans, there you go. So again I wouldn't worry too much about the movie universe, because we have no shortage of options for me and other characters to populate."     While this would be a cool synergy for DC Entertainment, it remains to be seen if networks would be as amendable to featuring a character from a show on a rival network (it could also cause continuity nightmares). It is, at any rate, a juicy look into the sort of creative possibilities that are developing in the DC television universe.   Among other noteworthy things that Amell mentioned:

• He would like Oliver Queen be a little less dark next season
• There is the possibility that Season 4’s “big bad” could be Damian Dark, recently mentioned (but unseen) towards the end of Season 3 of Arrow
• The actor from Arrow who has left the show that Amell misses the most is Colin Donnell (Tommy Merlyn)
• Amell didn’t read too heavily from Green Arrow comics before he started the show, but since then he has read Green Arrow: Year One (by Andy Diggle and Jock), The Longbow Hunters (by Mike Grell), and the recent Arrow adaptation comics.