'Arrow' season 8 could introduce Justin Hartley's Emerald Archer from 'Smallville' in run-up to 'Crisis on Infinite Earths'
The final season of 'Arrow' is all set to further explore the multiverse and introduce alternate versions of our favorite heroes and villains. The show will reportedly follow a more episodic format that should allow 'Arrow' to really explore the worlds that are about to come under threat during 'Crisis on Infinite Earths', all while Oliver's predicted demise grows ever closer.
During San Diego Comic-Con 2019, Stephen Amell, who plays Oliver Queen, revealed season 8 would feature multiple versions of the Emerald Archer, saying: “I’m going to play more than one character in the crossover. They’re all named Oliver.”
Beyond confirming that we will get to see Amell as multiple versions of the Green Arrow, this also opens up the possibility of bringing on another fan-favorite version of the character, TV’s first Emerald Archer, Justin Hartley’s Oliver Queen from ‘Smallville’. In 2018, Hartley confirmed to his ‘Smallville’ co-star Michael Rosenbaum's ‘Inside of You’ podcast, he would be open to appearing on ‘Arrow’.
“If it was the right part, yeah," Hartley said. "I love interesting characters. Yeah, if it was something that I could get excited about, yeah, of course.” Besides his work on 'Smallville', Hartley also starred as Arthur Curry in the pilot episode for an 'Aquaman' show that never got picked up.
He was also supposed to star in a 'Smallville' spin-off focused on the Green Arrow which unfortunately didn't pan out either. He's found quite a bit of success since, especially with his role as Kevin Pearson on NBC's 'This Is Us'.
Over the years, all the Arrowverse shows have constantly paid tribute to the DC TV shows that came before. John Wesley Shipp, who played Barry Allen in the ‘90s TV adaptation of ‘The Flash’, has been a major part of Grant Gustin’s ‘The Flash’ since the show’s very first season.
While he first appeared as Barry’s father on the show, he later returned as an alternate universe version of Jay Garrick, the original Golden Age Flash from the comics. He also returned during the ‘Elseworlds’ crossover as the Earth-90 version of Barry Allen.
Hartley’s Green Arrow was one of the most popular characters on ‘Smallville’, evolving from playing a relatively small role to becoming a series regular starting in season 8 of the show. This version of Oliver stayed more or less true to the comics and was quite a hit with the fans for his winning personality.
Granted, ‘Smallville’ was a very different show from ‘Arrow’ but having Hartley appear on the show, even for a brief cameo, would be a great call-back for the fans and an excellent way to pay tribute to the very first version of the Emerald Archer to grace the screen before ‘Arrow’ finally takes its last bow.
‘Arrow’ season 8 will begin airing on The CW on October 15, 2019.
