It's sheer grittiness that separates Oliver Queen's adventures from the rest of the Arrow-verse. While The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow often rely on high-concept sci-fi and downright ridiculous escapades, the folks at Arrow get their hands dirty, and their faces bloody -- sometimes literally. In fact, Stephen Amell recently received a swift kick to the face while filming an Arrow fight scene, and he immediately posted the gruesome results to Facebook. Check out the photo below to see for yourself.
The above photo recently surfaced on Stephen Amell's Facebook page, and as you can see: it showcases the very real hazards of filming a fake fight scene. While filming an action sequence for the fifth season of Arrow, it appears that a stunt was botched -- which subsequently saw another performer's foot make contact with Amell's face in dramatic fashion. After finishing the take, Amell had to shove tissues up his nose and deal with the swelling, but in the end he still maintained that it was totally worth it. Anything for art, right?
Ultimately it looks as though everything turned out just fine. Stephen Amell hurt his nose, but it doesn't look like he caused any permanent damage to his face -- something that will undoubtedly come as a relief to many fans of the series.
When compared to the standards of network television, Arrow has always excelled when it comes to stunt work. Although the violence on Arrow might not feel quite as intense as it has become on shows like Netflix's Daredevil, The CW's Green Arrow series has continuously pumped out solid fight sequence after solid fight sequence with each passing season. The folks behind the show have seemingly doubled down on this idea, as they've already promised that the fifth season will feature some of the show's most brutal fight scenes to date. We're holding you to that, Arrow.
In fact, showrunner Wendy Mericle recently opened up to TVLine regarding how the current state of violence on premium cable series like Game of Thrones influenced the fight scenes on Arrow's fifth season, and that Arrow will most certainly ramp up the action and brutality in the near future. She elaborated:
I can say it looks amazing... We're now part of this [TV] universe where you have Game of Thrones and the way that they deal with violence and how they do their fights, so it's our attempt to do something similar. It's bloody. You're in it. We're doing a lot more 'first person' -- not necessarily point of view -- action. Stephen has been a huge proponent of doing that, and it's going to feel real and in your face.
So it sounds like the fifth season of Arrow quite literally won't pull any punches (or kicks) when it finally returns. We will bring you more information related to the Emerald Archer's solo series as more bloody details become available to us. Arrow will return to The CW on Wednesday October 5; make sure to check out our fall TV premiere schedule and fill out your calendars accordingly.
