Those among you who were fans of Smallville may remember that when the Superman prequel series was in its final years, The CW was kicking around the idea of a Green Arrow spinoff. After all, if any superhero aside from Clark Kent to have appeared on the show captured the hearts of viewers, it was certainly Oliver Queen. Having been played by Justin Hartley in seasons 6-10, the impact felt by the first live action representation of the Emerald Archer was undeniable. In fact, a separate offshoot almost happened midstream, but that’s a different discussion altogether.
So, when Arrow was finally being realized – and in a universe entirely separate from Smallville, to boot – some devotees were understandably skeptical. But, when you really thought about it, it’d be incredibly hard to launch a series accessible to new viewers when you’re tied down to years of continuity established by another – especially when Smallville married off its own version of Oliver to Chloe Sullivan, thereby prohibiting any possible romance between him and Black Canary (or any other woman, for that matter). Plus, I’m pretty sure there was no way Allison Mack was going to play Chloe again after ten years of doing so – and in light of current events we dare not speak of.
That said, I’ve long hoped that Hartley would make a guest appearance on Arrow at some point, even if it be as a one-shot villain. Similar to how veterans of various Superman-related series such as Dean Cain, Helen Slater, Erica Durance and Laura Vandervoort have returned as different characters, one would assume this cat could likewise do something comparable.
When recently appearing on the Inside of You podcast, Justin did offer some encouragement on that front, saying:
“If it was the right part, yeah…I love interesting characters. Yeah, if it was something that I could get excited about, yeah, of course.”
In addition to that, Hartley’s busy schedule must be taken into consideration, but we’ll just leave it to new showrunner Beth Schwartz and her colleagues to make the dream a reality. I mean, if they can concoct all of these massive crossovers, then surely they can figure out a way to get this to work, right?
Arrow returns for its seventh season on Monday nights this fall on The CW.