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Stephen Amell Previews Oliver Queen’s Return To The Flash

Interview with Stephen Amell about his Arrowverse return in The Flash episode “It’s My Party And I’ll Die If I Want To.”

Published

2 years ago

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Over ten years ago, the “Arrowverse” began with the first episode of Arrow. The series starred Stephen Amell as DC Comics character Oliver Queen, a.k.a. the emerald archer Green Arrow. The second season of Arrow expanded the universe more with the first appearance of Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, known best to DC Comics fans as The Flash, and soon enough, he had his own series as well.

If you are reading this website you know very well what all of that led toward — and now, three years after the final episode of Arrow hit the air, Stephen Amell returns to the Arrowverse for a special episode of The Flash titled “It’s My Party And I’ll Die If I Want To.” Stephen isn’t the only one back for this episode, either — we’ll also see John Diggle (David Ramsey), Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy), and Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) returning for this high-stakes installment. The episode airs Wednesday, April 26 at 8PM ET/PT.

We were able to speak with Stephen about his big return and it’s the first of two interviews you’ll find on FlashTVNews this week – come back tomorrow for an interview with the episode’s director, Danielle Panabaker. But for now, enjoy….

FLASHTVNEWS’ CRAIG BYRNE: How important was it to you that if you did return to the Arrowverse, it would be for a major role and not just a cameo?

STEPHEN AMELL: It didn’t need to be a major role, per se, but I was very adamant that I get to do something significant, or say something significant. I just wanted to make sure that if Oliver came back, we would learn something.

Will we find out where Felicity, William, and Mia may currently be?

No, but we certainly get to allude to them. If you followed the series, you kind of know where they are, if you think about the timeline of it all. It’s been three or four years since Oliver passed.

Is there anyone that you wish could have also been present for Flash 909?

I think it would have been nice if Emily [Bett Rickards] was there. But it almost would have felt like too much. They had their ending, so this, to me, was very much the Barry/Oliver story, and then we get the nice goodbye with Diggle as well.

Has there been anything about the Arrow experience that you found you missed more than you thought you would in the past three years?

[I miss] the camaraderie and the consistency. There’s a lot to be said for being able to go to work every day, and there’s also a lot to be said for the consistent nature of The CW for the entirety of the time that we were there. We always had a very enthusiastic pickup, and that just became the norm, and now we live in a world where it’s like nothing is certain, and you don’t even know sometimes why something may or may not get renewed, or greenlit, or canceled. You don’t know, so there’s all that uncertainty.

So, I do miss the consistency of just knowing what I was doing on a daily basis. That being said, this new adventure that I’m on is a lot of fun, and I think we made the right decision. Could we still be here right now, and could we be talking about our 12th season wrapping up? Yeah, we could have been, but I don’t know. I don’t think it would pack the same punch that going away and coming back does.

Can you talk about what Barry may take away from seeing Oliver again?

Barry is having some sort of crisis of confidence, and it’s important for Oliver to always remind him what he’s doing, what he’s capable of, and what he means. I think we do that very nicely in the episode by basically calling back on the same dialogue that I give to him in The Flash pilot.

How does it feel to you to see the Arrowverse riding off into the sunset right now?

Honestly, I haven’t given a ton of thought to it since I’ve been done. I never really kept up with the shows, believe it or not. I kept up with our show, because I needed to be aware of stuff, but Oliver is not supposed to know a lot of the stuff that’s going on in the connecting worlds, so I didn’t really watch it. I think that more or less everyone got to end on their terms, with the exception of Legends of Tomorrow… everyone had a real good run. The longer something goes, I think the more sometimes people think that they’re entitled for it to stick around forever, and unfortunately, it’s not how things work. Times change. This was a really great era for TV, I think, and something will come along and something will kickstart some new interconnected universe, and people will move on.

When you are doing the Arrow pilot 11 years ago, did you have any idea that would lead to around 600 episodes of television?
”
No, man. What you’re thinking in that moment is “let’s get this pilot, and let’s get a second episode….” And then you’ve got 13 episodes, and then you get the back 10! But no, you don’t think about any of that.

With that being said, Greg Berlanti and I spoke in the Summer of 2013, and he told me all about what they anticipated doing, and the introduction of Barry Allen, and the idea of basically creating a Justice League on television, and it worked out great. But no, I couldn’t anticipate it. I don’t even think I ever set like an aspirational goal of 100 episodes. It was just like “let’s just keep doing good work!”

Is there anything specific that you remember about your first day working with Grant?

I don’t really remember that much the first day. I remember the table read. There’s a photo of us on the lot that I actually posted on social media when I announced that I was coming back, and that was after the table read. I just remember that Barry had the majority of the dialogue in his first couple of episodes, because I think we read both of his episodes when he came in, and I was just thinking to myself, like, “wow, this guy came really prepared.” That’s a very intimidating thing to do, to walk into a table read with a bunch of people that are super familiar with one another, and have the floor, so to speak. he just acquitted himself so well right then, that you just knew that this was all gonna work out.

You still have a Code 8 sequel coming out, right?

Yes. It should be getting handed to Netflix imminently.

Do you have more writing and directing type projects coming up?

I did a little movie a couple of months ago, and I’m still waiting to hear about Heels, because I’m under contract to them. I’m also trying to put together a movie right now with one of the directors from Arrow. That’s sort of still in early stages, and we’re trying to make it happen.

Do you have any other words you’d like to say to the fans who will be reading this who loved Arrow and should tune in to The Flash, or to the fans of The Flash, about you coming back?

If you were a fan of the show, and certainly if you gave us any sort of commitment of… be it 170 episodes, or the occasional episode that you’d see… maybe you’ve just seen sporadic episodes on Netflix over the years… if you like the character, and if you like the bromance between Oliver and Barry, this is a really nice period on the sentence. A really nice final chapter in the book.

What are the chances that we get to hear the Green Arrow say his famous catch phrase again?

I didn’t come back to not play the hits.

The Flash “It’s My Party And I’ll Die If I Want To” airs Wednesday night, April 26 on The CW. Take a look at some photos here!

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Interviews

The Flash: Speaking With Tom Cavanagh Before Tonight’s Finale

Tom Cavanagh discusses his return as the Reverse Flash in the series finale of the Flash airing March 24

Published

1 year ago

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May 24, 2023

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Tom Cavanagh was a part of The Flash from the start, first playing Harrison Wells-but-actually-the Reverse Flash, and then giving us a myriad of Wells throughout the multiverse. He’s also proven himself to be a fantastic director, helming multiple episodes of The Flash as well as fellow CW superhero staple Superman & Lois. Tonight, he’s back in front of the camera, playing Barry’s arch enemy once again.

FlashTVNews spoke with Tom Cavanagh in the days leading to tonight’s finale, and here are some highlights of that conversation:

How did it feel to be back? “I think the emotions are probably very different for somebody like myself or Carlos Valdes who decided to leave after Season 6; myself with the knowledge that [I have] this parachute of the fact that I play the Reverse Flash and he’s gonna come in every four or five months and blow up Central City and try and kill the Flash. It was a tremendous situation for me, because that’s exactly how it played out. I got to come back, and see my friends, and put on the suit, and enjoy that. It was just a grand circumstance anytime out to see the crew and the cast and put on that suit.”

On the importance of bringing the Reverse Flash back for the series finale: “It was understood that when we got to the series finale, that we have to include the Joker to the Batman; or in this case, Reverse Flash to The Flash.”

Would he like to play Reverse Flash again? “Reverse Flash, for me, was just a joy to play, as an antagonist or arch-enemy. There’s charisma to that character, and I delighted in. I would suit up again in a heartbeat.”

Cavanagh has pitch for a return on a possible Reverse Flash spinoff project. “Here’s my pitch: What if Reverse Flash, with all his villainy, fell for a civilian and then suddenly that complicated his agenda? Where would he go with his paramour, and how would it affect him? Would he then be able to carry through on his designs of destroying Barry? The reason we didn’t do that on The Flash was because you’d need to call that show Reverse Flash. We’ve got The Flash, which I wholeheartedly support. That being said, I think there’s room in the multiverse now that The Flash is over for us to explore that. And so, that’s my pitch for a Reverse Flash spinoff.”

Is Eobard afraid of any of the other speedsters? “Heck no, and that will be readily apparent in the finale.”

Was it fun to play Eobard insulting Eddie and Hunter Zolomon in the finale? “Poor Teddy Sears. Poor Rick Cosnett. Grand humans, all. And then, they roll on camera and it’s just, like, me taking shots. Teddy would quote them back to me a month later and I’d ask ‘who said that?’ ‘You said it!’ It’s so fast and furious, that I can’t keep track sometimes. I have to say, there’s one descriptor for those guys: It’s ‘tolerant’.”

Any final words for the fans who have followed the series for nine years? “I think it’s great that you bring that up, because often times, when a show has run a long time, a lot of the concentration is on the people who are the face of the show on camera, but off camera is the audience. They are the reason we were even given these nine years. It’s never lost on me. I remember [Superman & Lois and former Flash showrunner] Todd Helbing saying this: ‘These people invite us into their homes for an hour a week, and it is such a privilege and a responsibility. We want to let them know that we don’t take it lightly.’ That would be the message that I would like to basically parrot. Certainly, we’re grateful for the audience showing up week after week, which gave us those nine years. And even though I’m sure we didn’t always succeed story wise, it’s important for us to let the audience know that it was not from lack of trying. We understood that they were the reason we were there, and we were always doing our best to try to tell stories that they would enjoy, and keep coming back.”

The Flash series finale airs tonight on The CW.

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Interviews

Flashback: Revisiting Our Earliest Flash Cast Interviews

FlashTVNews revisits our earliest interviews with the cast of The Flash.

Published

1 year ago

on

May 24, 2023

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The final episode of The Flash airs tonight (May 24) at 8PM ET/PT on The CW… and we’re feeling pretty retrospective right now. Sure, we have a new interview with Tom Cavanagh that will be posted this afternoon, but beyond that, we’re thinking about the long run that got us here.

FlashTVNews had the opportunity over the years to interview almost every series regular in the show’s 9-season run, at one time or another. Whether it was at a Comic-Con, a carpet for a crossover, or the very first Flash appearance at the Television Critics Association press tour… we were there. Below you can find some of those interviews, starting from the TCA Press Tour and moving down the list. Sadly, we never did get to do video with such folks as Brandon McKnight, Jon Cor, or Kayla Compton… but if you want to see how the cast was talking about the show in the early days, this may be a treat for you. And again, the series finale “A New World, Part Four” airs tonight at 8PM ET/PT.

Candice Patton (Iris West):

 

Jesse L. Martin (Joe West):

 

Tom Cavanagh (Eobard Thawne/Various Wells):

 

Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon):

 

Rick Cosnett (Eddie Thawne):

 

Grant Gustin (Barry Allen… the fastest man alive!):

 

Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow):

 

John Wesley Shipp (Daddy Flash):

 

Teddy Sears (Zoom/Jay Garrick/Hunter Zolomon):

 

Jessica Parker Kennedy (Nora West-Allen):

 

Keiynan Lonsdale (Wally West):

 

Danielle Nicolet (The Seal Cecile Horton/Virtue):

 

Michelle Harrison (Nora WHY DID I SAY THAT NAME):

 

Patrick Sabongui (Captain Singh):

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Interviews

The Flash: Eric Wallace Would Be Open To Continuing The Story

Flash Showrunner Eric Wallace discusses the possibility of Flash audio adventures after the series is done.

Published

2 years ago

on

May 20, 2023

By

Could there be a continuation of The Flash after Wednesday’s final episode? It’s possible.

Before he landed on The Flash, Showrunner Eric Wallace had been involved with Big Finish Productions’ audio continuations of the classic gothic TV soap Dark Shadows, having written or co-written three stories for the studio. Stories like the ones told by Big Finish can keep a franchise alive – they were the leading source of new Doctor Who stories during the “wilderness years” between the 1996 Paul McGann TV movie and Christopher Eccleston’s debut in 2005’s “Rose.”

When we spoke with Eric Wallace prior to the launch of The Flash Season 9 earlier this year (well before the current writers’ strike), we asked him if he’d have any interest in writing Flash audio adventures one day, and in addition, which character from Dark Shadows lore he would “borrow” to meet Team Flash if he ever could, a very nerdy question that might only be understood by a fraction of the audience reading this website.

“Yes, I would love to,” he confirmed. “Not immediately.. give me a year off, I need a break… but I would love to write a Flash audio adventure at some point in the future, to tell the stories that I wasn’t able to tell during this particular moment.”

As for the second part of the question, asked only for fun? “I already know what the answer is, but I’m gonna qualify it: I would want to bring over Barnabas Collins, but I think the more appropriate character to come on to this show is Quentin, because Quentin is a man out of time, much moreso than Barnabas is. Barnabas was locked in a coffin and then woke up after 200 years and is dealing with past baggage, so obviously, he would have a lot to talk about with Barry Allen. But Quentin is a man of the past who was thrust into modern times, and actually starts to adjust, but a curse follows him, so he can’t ever have a future, so seems to me that there’s a definite story between Quentin and Iris, right there.”

And that’s not all: “Having said that, Julia [Dr. Julia Hoffman] and Reverend Trask are my next two favorites. I have to sneak them in too somehow,” he said, making us wonder why we never managed to get the actors David Selby or Jerry Lacy on The Flash TV show as Max Mercury or a character in that vein.

In the months since this interview was conducted, Grant Gustin has also addressed his Flash future beyond May 24:

“I think regardless of if I put the suit on again or not – and I love this – I’ll be associated with this character for the rest of my life, so if anybody wants to call me about The Flash, I will take the phone call and hear them out,” Grant said in a recent interview with EW.

Maybe this means May 24 won’t be the end after all…

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