Though it may seem silly to some, fans have been clamoring to see the Emerald Archer sporting the goatee comic book that readers have known for decades. And after seeing a clean-shaven Justin Hartley appearing on the latter seasons of Smallville and Stephen Amell keeping his facial hair pretty close for the first six years of Arrow, the diehards will finally get their wish granted this fall.
There does, however, appear to be a bit of a twist, and that’s because while Amell’s Oliver Queen will rock a beard worthy of landing himself a spot in the Viking Metal band Amon Amarth, he may never actually have it while in costume.
From the look of it, the beard won’t ever find its way outside of prison walls, for Amell Tweeted out a side-by-side image that can be viewed below. Captioned with “Wednesday/Thursday,” the picture on the left shows him looking like a hardened inmate, whereas he’s the guy we’ve known from previous seasons on the right.
Taking the shooting schedule into consideration, this change in style could be in preparation for the “Elseworlds” crossover that may very well see Stephen playing a Green Arrow from an alternate universe. Or, his beard sustained critical damage during the all-male pillow fight we’re led to believe takes place in episode 7.
In all seriousness, the reason behind the shaving could be two-fold: preparation for the crossover as already mentioned, and perhaps Ollie will indeed get out of prison around that point. Actually, filming on the midseason finale may not be far off, and that seems like as good of a place as any for that to happen.
Arrow returns for its seventh season on Monday, October 15 on The CW.
