Arrow Season 6: Stephen Amell Teases Fracture in Team Arrow

Arrow Season 6 has seen a massive shake up in the Team Arrow roster. Diggle is Green Arrow, Oliver is out, and the “new recruits” have more of a role than ever. What does this mean for Original Team Arrow, aka Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle? Will we be seeing the original trifecta teaming up again any time soon?

Den of Geek was part of a group of reporters who visited the Arrow set yesterday where Stephen Amell teased an upcoming fracture amongst Team Arrow. The split? The original team versus the new recruits. Here’s what he had to say…

In an upcoming episode — it’s not for a little bit — but we discover that there’s a fracture on the inside and it threatens to split Team Arrow down the middle of the original members and the newbies.

A fracture within Team Arrow is rich narrative ground to play out now that Arrowis more of an ensemble show than ever. Amell spoke more generally about the evolution of the Team Arrow from Oliver’s lonely project to the team we know and love today.

Going back to Season 1, it was first just me, and then me and David, and then me, David, and Emily. And it stayed that way for quite a long time. That’s always been one of the core elements of Team Arrow, and despite how useful and exceptional the new team member have been, they still are the new team members.

Amell said that he’s been trying to play Oliver much more inclusive this season, and pushing back against scenes that regress Oliver to the unilateral decision-maker we saw in Seasons 1 through 4.

“We always try to change that around a little bit,” said Amell. “That’s a remnant from an earlier time for the character. We always try to massage that a little bit so it does seem more collaborative and I’ve been really pushing back hard against some of the way that we’ve handed the fallout between there being a slight fracture on the team.”

Another point of contention for Amell? When the newbies take issue with Oliver, without acknowledging Felicity and Diggle’s roles in group decisions.

“In my mind, myself, David, and Emily, as our characters, we make a decision, but we make it together,” said Amell. “I was finding that the newbies… all their blame and anger was directed totally at me and that didn’t track with what we were playing. I don’t mind people being mad at Oliver. I don’t mind Oliver making mistakes. People being pissed off at him is fine. So long as it’s warranted [and] make sense in the context of the story.”

We all knew that Oliver had to come back to Team Arrow eventually and it sounds like, when it happens, the Team Arrow will be much changed from the one he left. Might that include a Diggle reluctant to surrender the Green Arrow persona?

David Ramsey, who we also interviewed on set, implied this was a good question to be asking.

I think it’s interesting for Diggle that last year’s crossover had the Dominators, and in that illusion they went into our heads and brought out what would be our greatest lives … For Diggle, it was being the Green Arrow. I think that’s a very interesting story, that somehow, some place in Diggle, he likes wearing the hood. 

It sounds like we’ll have to wait a bit to see Oliver return to Team Arrow and for the in-fighting to begin, but, with Manu Bennett returning as Slade Wilson for the next two episodes, we have plenty to look forward to in the mean time.