Warning: This article contains SPOILERS Arrow season 6 finale.
Despite proving popular enough to last six seasons, many fans of the original Green Arrow comics have criticized The CW’s Arrow for its divergences from the source material. Those fans may be thrilled to know that the seventh season of the long-running show will see actor Stephen Amell finally following through on an old promise and growing Oliver Queen’s distinctive “Robin Hood” goatee.
Amell famously promised, in the early days of Arrow‘s existence, that he would grow out his beard to resemble Oliver Queen’s legendary facial hair at some point before the series came to a close. The exact terms have been amended several times, with Amell claiming in 2015 that if the show lasted to season 6, he would then show up with the classic beard on day one. That didn’t come to pass, clearly, but it seems that the Arrowverse version of Oliver Queen may be abandoning his usual scruffy short beard for a more stylized look in the first episode of season 7.
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Stephen Amell made an appearance at Motor City Comic Con recently, where he told audiences that he’s growing a goatee for Arrow season 7 (via ComicBook). He warned the audience, however, that they shouldn’t expect the goatee to be permanent, nor to expect him to completely adopt the classic costume designed by legendary artist Neal Adams. “I can’t promise that I’m going to keep [the goatee] forever. I can definitely promise that I’m not going to wear the stupid hat.”
Precisely what costume Green Arrow will wear in season 7 remains to be seen. It may be some time before audiences see Oliver Queen in any form of costume after Arrow‘s season 6 finale, which ended with his secret identity being exposed to the world and the Emerald Archer facing a life sentence in prison. Amell speculated upon the question, but gave no solid answers.
“We’ve actually been thinking a lot, assuming that Ollie gets out of prison if he suits back up as the Green Arrow, what does that costume look like? Because there’s no more secret identity. That cat is out of the bag. Not that it was that secret before, but we will see.”
It’s worth noting that Amell technically did keep his promise to sport Green Arrow’s famous goatee, but not on Arrow. Amell appeared in the “Star City 2046” episode of the first season of Legends of Tomorrow, playing a future version of Oliver Queen. This version of Green Arrow had failed his city, having lost an arm and all his allies, save for protege John Diggle Jr., in his battle to save Star City from Grant Wilson, who had taken up his father’s identity as Deathstroke. Amell donned old-age make-up and a grey goatee in order to portray the elderly Oliver, in a performance that evoked memories of the older Oliver Queen from the classic graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. But, it seems it’s time for him to bring that goatee over to Arrow.
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Arrow season 7 premieres sometime in 2018.
