Stephen Amell’s made the character of Oliver Queen his own over the past six seasons of Arrow, taking the billionaire vigilante from his early days as the Hood to his later years as the savior of Star City. There’s one thing that fans have been wanting to see for a while, though: for him to sport the iconic goatee beard that Green Arrow’s had in the pages of DC comics for decades.
It was met with a cheer all round back in May, then, when Amell revealed that he was working on his goatee beard for the upcoming seventh season of The CW’s hit show. Now, three months later, he’s reminded us this is on the cards with a hilarious Tweet which gives an update on his facial fuzz-growing progress. Apparently, it’s proving pretty difficult.
“Been trying to grow my beard to look like the iconic image of Green Arrow. Five months in… I’m closer to Thanos.”
Well, we suppose growing a beard that looks like the crinkly, purple chin of Thanos is pretty impressive. However, it sounds like Amell’s still got a while to go before he’s able to style it into Ollie’s distinctive tuft.
Presumably, the reason for the evolution of his beard is because of Ollie’s change of circumstances. In the season 6 finale, the former mayor was carted off to jail when his secret vigilantism was discovered. Seeing as he’s been locked up in Slabside Maximum Security Prison over the summer, you can imagine that he’s let his beard grow out.
If it helps with his tough guy image, Ollie might need it, as he’ll be stuck inside with numerous old enemies – including Michael Jai White’s Bronze Tiger, Vinnie Jones as Brick and Cody Runnels as Derek Sampson. Plus, we know that Queen won’t be free immediately, as Amell’s promised that Ollie will stay in jail past the first episode.
Be sure to tune in when Arrow season 6 shoots onto The CW on Monday, October 15th.