Before Stephen Amell took on the role of Oliver Queen in Arrow, Justin Hartley played the iconic character in Smallville. Some fans expected Hartley to star in the show and as it turns out, producer Marc Guggenheim wanted to as well.
In a recent interview with Fake Nerd Podcast, Guggenheim revealed that he tried recruiting Hartley for years. "I'll tell you, Justin is someone I've been trying to get on Arrow for years," he said. Unfortunately, it never worked out.
That said, Guggenheim still found a way to honor Hartley's version of the Emerald Archer. He sent down a request to borrow the actor's costume from the archives. "They said yes, but they said yes with a lot of caveats," he pointed out. "Not the least of which is, 'No one can wear it' and 'You can't get it dirty.'"
They featured Hartley's costume on the show by putting it on a dummy. "So thereby we satisfied that loophole," Guggenheim added. "And as far as not getting it dirty, hopefully, whoever at archives provided it to us never actually saw that episode."
Hartley's Green Arrow dummy version was spotted lying in the dirt in a stinger released before the Elseworlds crossover began. The Earth-90 heroes have been killed and among those is Smallville's Arrow.
It seems like Hartley has moved on from playing the character or maybe even superhero roles in general. That said, there still are some fans who would like to see him return as Green Arrow once again.
The CW's Arrow has already concluded the series after 8 epic seasons. Crisis on Infinite Earths is set to re-air on April 7.
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