Bringing change to The Hood

Stephen Amell, the star of reveals that a shift in the caped avenger’s focus and added dynamics make this season more thrilling than the first

OLIVER Queen has a rough road ahead on Arrow, Season 2 of which airs Fridays on M-Net at 7.30pm.

In honouring Tommy’s death through his vow not to kill again as he reassumes his perch as The Hood, Oliver’s path to becoming a hero is paved with dead ends and detours. With Queen Consolidated vulnerable, Roy Harper attempting to be the city’s saving grace and Laurel desperate to lock the vigilante away for good, time isn’t on Oliver’s side.

And that’s not all. This season also sees the rise of his nemesis Isabel Rochev (Summer Glau) and the tricky Black Canary ( Caity Lotz), with much to reveal in upcoming episodes. As the alter-ego of Dinah Drake, the actress will play a love interest for the hero.

Stephen Amell talks about playing a character who isn’t “chasing a ghost” any more and getting put in “precarious” situations.

How significantly has the loss of Tommy affected Oliver and his journey to becoming the Green Arrow?

His journey now has to be about honouring Tommy and trying to become the version of himself that Tommy hopes he would be.

For a lot of characters, not just Oliver, there’s a tremendous sense of guilt. Oliver tried to save Tommy but he couldn’t. To a larger extent, he put Tommy in harm’s way to begin with. If Malcolm (John Barrowman) dies in episode 16, then the Undertaking never happens and Tommy survives.

He (Tommy) remains a pivotal part of the show; we can’t just gloss over him dying like that.

Oliver is put in a precarious position at the end of the second episode.

He is. At the beginning of episode three, we pick up right where we left off. Precarious.

Roy Harper’s (Colton Haynes) started on the road to becoming Arrow’s sidekick, what’s that like for him?

Colton’s killing it this year. We don’t have a ton of scenes together so when I see his stuff, I always find myself laughing. I think he brings a lot of humour to the Roy character. In a future episode Oliver refers to him as “an errand boy”, and I wouldn’t say that (Oliver) just considers him to be an errand boy, but it’s not that important of a job. But to Roy, it’s like he’s part of a team now.

Oliver’s just trying to give him a purpose and hoping to keep him out of trouble. The elephant in the room is his proximity to Thea (Willa Holland) that’s what really worries Oliver. It’s the same reason he doesn’t reveal himself to Laurel and why he was so afraid to reveal himself to Tommy: because proximity to the vigilante is dangerous.

As Roy gets closer to the vigilante, Thea is in more and more danger. That’s eventually going to become a factor this year.

Oliver has to to go up against powerful businesswoman Isabel Rochev at Queen Consolidated, what’s that like for him?

He’s not trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. He’s legitimately trying to save the company. It does mean a great deal to him. It’s an extension of his family, and he’s the person who represents his family now.

He’s trying to make good for his company, his family and Isabel. As it happens, he has another job (too). He can’t say to her, “I’m the vigilante and that’s why I’m not here”. He just has to appear to be a failure, and some of that is irresponsible. He’s working to earn her trust, but it’s not happening as quickly as he’d like.

Felicity ( Emily Bett Rickards) has secured her spot in Oliver’s inner circle, alongside Diggle ( David Ramsey). What can we expect to see with Felicity and Oliver working more in tandem?

Their relationship is evolving. She is a fullfledged member of Team Arrow now and she’s not afraid to give her opinion.

She’s smart and capable and Oliver’s starting to see that more and more. That relationship will continue to strengthen throughout the season.

Is there more focus on the supporting players?

We’ve done an episode – I think episode six – that’s Diggle-centric. It’s his episode. In many ways episode three is Detective Lance’s ( Paul Blackthorne) and in episode the focus is fully on someone that I can’t name.

It’s very exciting to utilise the rest of the cast more this year. It’ll be interesting to see how people react to that. – theWrap/SMtv

TRICKSTER: Caity Lotz is the Black Canary.