The actor makes his Arrowverse return on Wednesday.
As The Flash prepares to sign off after nine seasons on The CW, some of Barry Allen's closest friends are coming back to help him say goodbye.
Stephen Amell makes his return to the Arrowverse on Wednesday, more than three years after his final bow as Oliver Queen, aka the Green Arrow, on Arrow. After the rest of Barry's (Grant Gustin) friends and family are poisoned by Bloodwork (Sendhil Ramamurthy), Oliver drops by to help him fight the villain, as well as a brainwashed Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale).
"It was amazing," Amell told ET of returning for the episode. "I got a good four or five days on set and to see people. It all felt very familiar and I was very excited to be back."
As far as the action scenes, while the hero-villain showdowns are a bit different than the fighting Amell's been doing on his new wrestling drama, Heels, he said getting back into the groove was "100 percent" just like riding a bike.
"That's pretty much a, 'Come on in here, and here's the five moves, and here's the shot and let's go,'" he shared. "We used a stunt double for me in the episode that actually doubled for me in parts of the Arrow pilot... And my old stunt double from seasons 5, 6, 7 and 8 also stopped by just to say hi."
Amell isn't exactly returning as the Oliver we remember, however. Following the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover during Arrow's final season, Oliver sacrificed himself to become the Spectre, a supernatural being tasked with keeping order in the multiverse. A heart-to-heart with former teammate John Diggle (David Ramsey) reveals that, while Oliver can keep eyes on the people in his old life, he doesn't intervene unless things are dire.
"I feel like he's in a supervisory position," the actor shared of his character's background. "He's just kind of floating around out there, making sure that everything's OK."
"There's a nice zen quality to him in this episode that sort of befits someone that sees everything," he added. "And yeah, I thought that we set the character up to put people in a position where they're going to ask some interesting questions about him."
The episode is a nice bookend for Amell and Gustin, as well. The character of Barry Allen was first introduced during season 2 of Arrow, before spinning off into his own series the next year. For the two titular stars, it's been one heck of a ride as The CW's flagship heroes.
"I think there's certainly some things that I'll understand and he'll understand and we're sort of only the two people that may understand it, just in terms of what goes into into eight, nine years of something like this," Amell reflected. "It's been really fascinating to see him grow and mature into the leader that he's become. I mean, he's always been incredibly capable, but that being said, him now versus him 10 years ago, totally different."
"I think that he's done a great job and has had to manage something at a time of his life when you're going through changes. It's not the easiest thing to do in the public spotlight and he's done a master's job," he continued. "I loved seeing the shot of him hugging his daughter after the last scene."
However, Amell admitted that he didn't bother offering Gustin any advice about life after the Arrowverse.
"Nope. I said, 'What are you going to do?' He said, 'I don't know.' I said, 'Well, give me a call if you want to do nothing together,'" he recalled with a laugh.
While he's moved on from the character now, Amell did note that he wouldn't be opposed to donning the Arrow suit again in the future -- though perhaps sometime down the road.
"I do really view the eight years, the eight seasons, that we did with that character as sort of a chapter, as opposed to the complete book," he mused. "I do think that, as we've proven with some of the relaunches of television shows or certain characters coming back to play a character after several years away, absence makes the heart grow fonder."
However, he added, "I do think that we did everything that we could with the Green Arrow character and the character of Oliver Queen in the context of the show, on The CW and network television. I think that there's other interesting options and avenues, but in the meantime, I'm busy, so we'll have to give it a little time."
For now, the actor is gearing up for the release of season 2 of Heels -- for which he said a premiere date is "imminent" -- and just about to wrap up work on the sequel to his Netflix sci-fi thriller, Code 8.
"The Code 8 sequel is just about done and then Netflix will take it and they'll decide when they put it out," he shared. "So a little bit of time for that one. Movie's great though."
The Flash's final season airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. PT/ET on The CW.
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