There was a swarm of headlines this past week stating that actor Stephen Amell of the CW's television adaptation of the Green Arrow, called simply Arrow, has had conversations with Warner Bros. executives to appear as the hooded hero in their Justice League movie. Amell went to his Facebook page to dismiss the rumors completely... But the question remains: should Amell continue his role as Green Arrow on the big screen?
I first have to say that I do enjoy the show very much and I think that Amell does a good job with the character. He is charismatic and shows two very different sides to Oliver Queen when he is in the hood and when he is in a suit. The show is dark and gritty and would visually and conceptually fit into the DC universe that has been set forth by Man of Steel. I would completely understand Warner Bros. decision to use Amell if this casting were to happen.
However, while Arrow is a great television show, it is just that, a television show. The difference between showing something that was made with a major movie budget and a TV budget is drastic. The same goes for the talent levels. I am in no way saying that Amell is a bad actor, but put him next to the likes Affleck and Cavill and things might not look so good for him. Amell would need major preparation and another movie or two under his belt before he could play a major role in a big budget project like Justice League.
Compromise can be in order however. If Warner Bros. desperately wanted to get their fan approval rating up and saw Amell as a way to do that, maybe a cameo appearance could be done? In Injustice: Gods Among Us, their's a scene at the beginning where Green Arrow saves Black Adam from falling to his death alongside Flash. There is some dialogue about how these people around them are gods and when Flash asks Green Arrow what that makes them he replies "clean up duty". Some kind of small scene to establish the Green Arrow's association with the Justice League like this would definitely be cool to see, anything bigger and it starts to get a little too risky for a first major action film (yes Amell was in one movie called "Closing the Ring" but had no huge part and the movie didn't do too well according to Rotten Tomatoes).
So while I thoroughly enjoy seeing Stephen Amell battle it out with bad guys each week on TV, I'm not sure I would trust him in a major role in Justice League just yet. Who knows? Maybe Warner Bros. will lock him in and put him in a few smaller films to build his movie resume for a future outing in the hood? For now though, I don't see him playing any major part in the DC Cinematic Universe.