The CW's Arrow Has No "Batman Code"

With Christopher Nolan's Batman/Dark Knight trilogy coming to end this past summer, DC Comics fans will most certainly want to check out Arrow, The CW's new series based on Green Arrow - airing Wednesday, October 10th at 8/7c.

Following the tragic exploits of billionaire heir Oliver Queen, Arrow definitely has some built-in parallels to Bruce Wayne/Batman in 2005's Batman Begins, but with one defining difference: Arrow won't hesitate to shoot an arrow right into a criminal's heart. I had a chance to talk to Arrow himself, star Stephen Amell, up on the show's set in Vancouver, and asked him his opinion on Arrow's code, or lack thereof, when it comes to killing his enemies in combat.

Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Arrow.

"He bends towards justice," Amell said. "And he just understands, along the way, that there can be collateral damage. He’s going after people that are not being responsible with power. See, I was a fan of wrestling growing up, and a fan of wrestling heels growing up. I’m actually kind of hoping that it pushes in that direction. I’ve said it a couple of times, that I don’t need everyone to agree with Oliver’s tactics as long as you respect his overall goal. He has to get his hands dirty a little bit."

"I’ve always felt like that’s where a character really resonates with people," Amell continued. "Whether that’s in a positive way or a negative way solely depends on the viewer. But this to me is not a popularity contest. As long as the television is compelling, then I don’t really care if people like him or dislike him."

In the Arrow pilot, Oliver returns to Starling City after five transformative years, stranded on an island. Does Amell have any personal hang-ups about playing a ruthless vigilante? "You mean me as an actor? No," he revealed. "I’m a very small piece in this machine, despite the size of me on the poster. And I trust [creators/executive producers] Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim and Greg Berlanti implicitly, and I also trust them because I don’t know what their overarching plan is necessarily. We’ve had discussions but they haven’t said to me, 'In episode 22, if we get there, this is what happens. And if we get to come back for a second season, this is what happens.' The hope that I had coming into the series is that [Oliver's] experience on the island would be really brutal and that it would strip him down to basically nothing so that he could be reformed with no traces whatsoever of the person that he was before he went there. And, so far, that has happened. The island stuff is awful. I mean, it’s rewarding, but those days are long and hard."

Arrow isn't all, well, arrows, of course. No, he's returned to his home with top-level hand-to-hand fighting skills. Something that Amell admits is pretty visceral. "We have a fight scene in an earlier episode [in the season] that is just simply brutal. It’s just very violent and there’s not a huge spectrum of moves. It’s just fists and elbows repeatedly. And it’s not pretty, which is one of the things I like."

"For the fight training, it’s all been [stunt coordinator] James Banmford," Amell added. "I learned the basics and then he sort of walks me through the fight. The thing that James does that’s great is that he always makes sure that tension is attached to the move. He made me watch The Raid: Redemption. It’s awesome. The tagline is “1 minute of romance, 99 minutes of action.” It’s an Indonesian film and it’s incredible. All that action has this crazy intention to it, and he’ll always just point out, you know, Jean Claude Van Damme doing a big circle kick that sort of looks like ballet and there’s nothing really behind it. It looks very good but people don’t connect with it in the same way."

While Smallville certainly had its legions of devotees, there are still comic books fans out there who are hesitant to see a series like Arrow land on The CW. "If you come into the series with a certain expectation based on what you expect from this network, just in terms of tone and just in terms of subject matter and the way that we deal with it, I think you’ll be very surprised," Amell insisted. "Not to say that it’s better or that it’s worse. But I think we’re using interesting tactics, and I think that whether you’re a television viewer that’s interested in interpersonal relationships or really kick-ass action, you’re gonna get what you’re looking for. The places that we’re trying to take this and the locations that we’re using and the unflinching nature of the storytelling technique is gonna surprise people."

Since Amell himself had brought up his own love of wrestling heels, I had to ask... Who was his favorite heel growing up? "The Macho Man," he said with a smile.

Arrow premieres on Wednesday, October 10th at 8/7c on The CW.

Travel accommodations to Vancouver provided by Warner Bros.