green arrow

Long before Stephen Amell donned the hood and greasepaint that would make him famous, there was another Green Arrow on television. Played by Justin Hartley, this version of Oliver Queen appeared throughout the latter seasons of ‘Smallville‘, whose popularity enabled him to make the transition from recurring guest star to series regular. Indeed, such was his popularity that prior to the premiere of ‘Arrow’ it was not uncommon to hear fans grouse that the powers that be should have simply given Hartley’s Green Arrow his own show.

As it turns out, those fans very nearly got their wish. Speaking on former ‘Smallville’ co-star Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast, ‘Inside of You‘, Justin Hartley revealed that his version of the Emerald Archer was considered for a spinoff. As Hartley explains:

“While I was on the show, while I was on ‘Smallville’, there were several different spinoff ideas that they had. They wanted to do a spinoff called ‘Metropolis’ or something like that, I heard whispers of that. It was Lois and Oliver in Metropolis and whatever that was. They were trying to extend the life of the show.”

The conversation doesn’t get much deeper into the would-be spin off, as the two quickly segue to other topics. As a result, it’s left unclear when the spinoff was being discussed and how it might’ve affected the course that ‘Smallville’ would ultimately follow. However, since the show was to have starred Hartley’s Oliver Queen and Erica Durance’s Lois Lane, it’s possible that these conversations were happening during or just after the time that the two characters were romantically involved. This would place it somewhere around the parent show’s seventh or eighth season.

Would you have been interested in seeing the spinoff described by Hartley? Or are you glad that DC’s TV arm moved on from ‘Smallville’ in favor of what would become the Arrowverse? Let us know in the comments!