Stephen Amell will don a brand-new costume when ‘Arrow’ returns for its fourth seasons on The CW in the fall.
As unveiled at the San Diego Comic-Con last Saturday, Amell’s character Oliver Queen is set to wear a different costume when he reprises his role as the DC superhero who fights crimes in Starling City.
In the photo released by the network, Amell can be seen all decked out in a new suit following the events of the third season’s finale, in which his character hung up his Arrow costume and sought to leave the city to take a trip to unknown destinations with Felicity Smoak, played by Emily Bett Rickards.
Fans could be questioning as to why the emerald archer’s new suit now has sleeveless arms.
"Once the design was finished, we shared it with Stephen and Stephen had a really great suggestion," executive producer Marc Guggenheim said in an interview with E! News. "He's like, 'I'm probably going to regret saying this when the winter comes, but what about making it sleeveless like the comics?'”
The new Arrow suit was then designed by the show’s official costume designer Maya Mani, who has also worked on many of the other suits worn in the hit series, including those of Arsenal (Colton Haynes), Black Canary (Katie Cassidy), Speedy (Willa Holland) and Ray Palmer’s A.T.O.M. (Brandon Routh).
"She [Mani] designs all the superhero costumes across all three shows," Guggenheim shared. "She did the design for the season four costume. We call it Arrow 3.0 because he got a slight costume tweak in the middle of season three, but she is amazing. She just had a clear vision for it."
Executive producer Wendi Mericle further explained why the brand new costume does not completely follow the one in the source material, saying: "It isn't true to the comics in the full execution, but it's homage and it's very much of our world. We didn't want it to look that different and we didn't want it to be light green….we wanted it to be true to the Arrow we created."
Now, fans can rest easy as Oliver is not necessarily done with his superhero duties but is only up for a costume upgrade.
Amell also revealed at Comic-Con that viewers will get to see the new suit as soon as the upcoming season begins.
“Warner Bros. Television Presents A Night of DC Entertainment,” a three-hour special Comic-Con event in Hall H, included a full pilot screening of CBS’ new ‘Supergirl,’ together with panels featuring cast members and producers of ‘Arrow,’ ‘The Flash,’ ‘Gotham’ and ‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.’ Fans were also treated to a sneak peek at the new digital series ‘Vixen.’
'Arrow' returns to the small screen for its fourth season on Oct 7, Wednesday, at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.
