Fan Expo Canada: Revisiting the Arrowverse With Stephen and Robbie Amell

Fan Expo Canada‘s Limited Edition event was a family affair thanks to appearances from famous Canadian cousins Stephen and Robbie Amell.

In a rare treat for fans, the two actors visited Toronto to team up for a super-sized panel where they discussed everything from Arrow to The Flash to their crowd-funded film, Code 8.

With Stephen exploring his passion for wrestling on Heels and Robbie continuing to add to his roster with a new season of Upload and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, there were many exciting tidbits for fans to enjoy. Find out what they had to say about their most prolific roles and the experience of acting alongside family.

Stephen and Robbie Amell are a peculiar byproduct of the film industry, having started acting around the same time, only to find themselves crossing paths in the same superhero universe. The Amell cousins haven’t always been able to stay close, so it was ultimately their shared career path that brought the two back together.

“We were tight growing up, but then I’m seven years older. When I’m thirteen and he’s six, we’re not doing that much stuff together but then our careers pushed us back together. Now we play the same age on screen,” Stephen Amell laughed.

“We were close when we were young and then like Steve said, that age gap was just weird,” Robbie Amell explained. “Then we both got into acting at the same time, not knowing the other one was doing it. We saw each other at a family dinner and we started talking about it. Steve stayed at my place in LA for a little bit and we fell right back into being family and friends again.”

For the two relatives, having a close confidant in this competitive industry is not something they have taken for granted. In fact, their relationship helped steer Stephen towards his most notable television role.

“Rob and I can bounce things off one another. He was the one that told me to go audition for Arrow. He came to me and said, ‘make sure to go audition for Arrow because my agents are pushing me for it and I think it’s for you,'” Stephen recalled. Robbie then reaffirmed his hunch, “Yeah I pictured you.”

Stephen elaborated on how their age difference eventually become an asset. “That’s where the age gap is helpful because we weren’t going out for the same things and Rob had a lot more jobs in the early part of his career. I remember going to him and he introduced me to an audition coach — so, different techniques.”

“There are not many people in the industry, because everyone really is after the same thing, that you can bounce something off and know they will be honest back,” Stephen noted.

When it comes to spending quality time together, Robbie explained many of his fondest memories during their acting career have been getting together to watch Stephen’s work on-screen.

“One of my favorite memories in LA was when we got to watch the Arrow premiere together. Steve brought it over to my house and a group of us sat around and watched it.”

“And that one is only second place to his CSI episode. He came over and a bunch of us were watching his episode. Spoiler Alert: he gets hit by a truck and he didn’t tell any of us this. It happens right at the end of the episode and everyone was just like ‘whoa, what!’ It was one of my favorite moments watching anyone’s work,” Robbie admitted.

Revisiting the Arrowverse:

This was not Stephen Amell’s first time at Fan Expo Canada. The actor recalled his last appearance at the convention. “That was August of 2012 and Arrow hadn’t premiered yet. We showed the pilot episode here, and then Collin, Willa, Katie, and I were signing some autographs. We had only filmed 6 or 7 episodes of the show.”

It’s been several years now since Stephen hung up the green hood and said farewell to Oliver Queen. But the legacy of Green Arrow continues and Stephen explained he is always appreciative of the part he played in this superhero’s collective history.

“Anytime you can be a caretaker or an ambassador for a role that’s been played before you and will be played after you, that people have a personal connection to, is special.”

“The Green Arrow has been around since the 1940s and you know before there was a TV show and before he appeared on Smallville, people were very big fans of the Green Arrow. So to embody that and to be a part of their experience is part of the reason I like coming to stuff like this because you get to meet people and hear about those experiences,” said Stephen.

“One of the things about finishing up on Arrow, which was a decision that we came to collectively, is having space from it gives me a little bit more appreciation.”

Since finishing Arrow‘s run on The CW, the actor has moved on to a new project — wrestling series Heels. However, for Stephen, the opportunity to return to the Arrowverse has never been off the table. “I played Oliver for eight years. We were ready to be done with the show, and 22-23 episodes a year can be a little taxing.”

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t places to go and things to try with the character, especially with all the streaming platforms,” he revealed. “Having a little distance from the character, I miss playing him a little bit — but, who knows.”

“If we were to ever do something, for god’s sake can it be rated R? We would have a policy on the Arrow set that I’d be allowed to break a guy’s neck but no blood.”

Stephen mentioned to fans at the panel he has plans to dawn the iconic green hood once more this Halloween. “Of course, I would do it for a kid’s birthday party. I ordered like an old school vintage Green Arrow costume for Halloween that I’m going to wear to embarrass my kid, but it hasn’t shown up yet.”

Speaking of suits, Stephen revealed he no longer has any of Oliver Queen’s suits from the set.

“Over eight years on Arrow, I probably went through eight suits a year. Even if I didn’t, they always have doubles and redundancies in case there’s a rip or score. Let’s say 8 suits and another 4 stunt suits, so that’s like 96 Arrow suits easily. I took a couple and gave them away, but when I got in touch with Warner Brothers and I asked for a suit — no,” he divulged.

“It was a no because when a show ends they bag everything, categorize it, and put it in some warehouse in Burbank California — and once it’s been taken into stock, it’s gone.”

“You know what you do? You go back for one crossover and you just take it,” Robbie suggested,  to Stephen’s approval. “Just walk out in the suit? Yeah, maybe. I had two doubles over eight years, both of them have a suit.”

Stephen may not have a Green Arrow suit but he did get to don the Flash’s iconic red jumpsuit for the Elseworlds crossover, a concept the actor thoroughly enjoyed. “I liked when Barry and Oliver swapped identities, that was really fun. I like wearing the Flash suit and it almost fit after a couple of weeks too.”

Robbie’s Roster of Projects

Robbie Amell has worked on a diverse roster of projects, garnering him a passionate multi-genre fanbase that stems back to projects like True Jackson, VP, and Scooby-Doo! The actor was happy to revisit some of these career highlights during his panel.

“I think The Tomorrow People was really important to me, and going right into the movie I did, called The Duff with Mae Whitman. That was a totally different project, it opened other doors for me, and she was a blast to work with.”

The Duff has since solidified itself as an indie success in the rom-com genre, earning its cult following and allowing Robbie the opportunity to ensure the film’s jock love interest could be more than a one-note character.

“I got the script sent to me and the character was such an unapologetic douche, I had a lot of problems with it. On paper, this character’s been on screen so many times and he just kind of sucks — it’s very one-dimensional,” explained Robbie as he recalled his first impressions of Wesley.

“I met with the director and he explained there was going to be rewrites. Italia [Ricci] read it and she was like ‘you have to do this movie.’ Once they had Whitman, I thought if she’s doing this, she obviously sees something in it. Italia was right, it’s her genre and she knew what she was talking about. She’s such a fan of She’s All That, the inspiration for that movie.”

Proving time again he is more than capable of playing the leading man, Robbie landed a role worthy of his charisma with Upload. The afterlife series was well-received by viewers and earned itself another season, which Robbie confirmed is on the way.

“We just finished Season 2, and it’ll come out in February-ish. We were very lucky to shoot and get a second season done. Italia and I binged it the other day, they sent me the seven episodes. It’s fun to be a fan of your own thing and the cast makes me laugh really hard — they’re all so charming and funny.”

“The second season is great, the first season was a blast to shoot,” Robbie confirmed.

“For me, it was a weird audition process, I was the first person to audition. Gregg had seen The Duff with his daughter and he thought I would be right for it, so I met with him. As an actor, you never feel like you got the role and I phoned my agents like “this is mine, I got this role,” and then they go, “he loves you but you’re the first person, so you gotta wait.” A month later they brought me back in.”

Robbie also threw in a few tidbits for fans of The Babysitter films. “The director’s name is McG and he’s done everything — massive music videos, a Terminator movie. He’s got a great attitude and it was his baby.”

“He produced The Duff and while we were on set, he’s like ‘I want you to do this movie called The Babysitter.’ I was like “great I’m in!” and he was like ‘do you want to know what it’s about?’ Then he sent me the script and I thought oh my god. It’s fun to play a bad guy and the movie is so out there and weird,” Robbie explained.

“I hope we get to do a third one. It’s fun to die over and over on those things.”

Wrestling and Heels

Since saying farewell to Oliver Queen, Stephen has channeled his passion for wrestling into Heels. So he was more than happy to discuss his love for the pastime with fans, but especially his love for the bad guys of wrestling.

“Growing up I didn’t realize I was a fan of the bad guys as much as I was. I liked Roonie Piper, I liked Mr. Perfect, The Macho Man. Who did you like?” he asked to which Robbie responded, “The Rock.”

“There’s the age gap. But the heels, the bad guys in wrestling — I say it in the first episode but it’s true, people only like the good guys as much as they hate the bad. Even in the wrestling ring, the bad guy is the one that calls the entire match. They’re the ones that control the crowd,” described Stephen.

And when asked if he would join him in the ring, Robbie didn’t hesitate. “It’s really fun to watch Steve do what he does just because you know what a dream come true that is for him and you can see it when you watch it. So, I would totally jump in the rink with Steve.”

As for where fans can expect these Canadian cousins to appear next, Robbie and Stephen confirmed they have already begun working together on their next project, a sequel to Code 8.

“We started shooting the sequel on Monday, just a few days ago,” Robbie revealed. “It’s just called Code 8: Part 2. You can’t make Code 9, so just part 2 — it’s way easier.”

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