Stephen Amell knows a thing or two about wielding a bow and arrow (and quill and superhero costume and silly haircut) for TV, and after eight seasons of Arrow, he can probably be considered the medium's grand ambassador to archery, assuming nobody from the Olympics is volunteering. More archers are rising up over the horizon, however, as Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld are set to take over Disney+ for Marvel's Hawkeye, which will begin streaming on November 21. Fans got their first official look at the series this week, and Amell had thoughts. Well, at least one thought.
Check out what Arrow's Stephen Amell had to say on Twitter about Hawkeye's first visuals below.
Rather than commenting on the trouble-causing introduction of Kate Bishop into the MCU, or on the Christmas lights aesthetic happening in that training area (presumably a basement), Stephen Amell went straight to one of his go-to comparisons from years past in commenting on Jeremy Renner being left-handed. And probably knowing that fans might come after him super-hard if he came off even the slightest bit disrespectful to either Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner or left-handed people, Amell avoided saying anything negative whatsoever. Instead, he celebrated Renner's opportunity to bring left-handed archery to television.
As some fans may remember, Stephen Amell has addressed the whole right-hand/left-hand distinction a few times in the past, with his playful comments at a 2018 convention stoking the flames of a DC vs. Marvel rivalry, even though he immediately pointed out afterward that he was kidding and did not want to insult anyone.
I think that any iteration of Green Arrow would beat any iteration of Hawkeye just based on the fact he's not weird and left handed.
For anyone who thought that Stephen Amell really does have some kind of deep-seated bias against those who shoot arrows differently than he did while portraying Green Arrow - a sentence that's hard to say without using a whiny tone - he'd already given his support to Jeremy Renner's MCU Hawkeye prior to make the above comments.
Granted, even that was said with a humorous tone, but still. And all of this will probably be moot by the end of 2021, when Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop rises up to be the most obvious choice for TV's Greatest Archer. Well, behind one Sterling Archer, naturally. In any case, it's probably safe to say that Amell is looking forward to The Boys Season 3 more than anything else anyway.
Stephen Amell traded the Green Arrow suit and persona for wrestling tights and the role of Jack Spade for Starz's upcoming drama Heels from Loki writer Michael Waldron, which kicks off on Sunday, August 15. For those who want to see fictional archery debates, the Hawkeye/Legolas argument can never be completely squashed. And then don't forget to mark your 2021 Fall TV calendars to mark Hawkeye's Disney+ debut on Wednesday, November 24.
