Stephen Amell On Playing Casey Jones And 'Arrow' Season 5

By Valerye Griffin

Eager fans lined up on Thursday, June 2, 2016 at the United Artist Riverview here in Philadelphia to see an early viewing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows, which was released across theaters Friday, June 3, 2016.  The film stars Megan Fox, Will Arnett, and Stephen Amell, lead star of The CW's Arrow who was in attendance on Thursday for the pre-release screening.

Amell portrays Casey Jones, a vigilante and ally to The Turtles while they protect the public from the diabolical plans of The Shredder (Brian Tee) and Dr. Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry).

"I had a blast playing Casey Jones", Amell says. "Once you see the movie you'll see he's certainly not the fully fleshed out, full-fledged vigilante that a lot of people have come to know." When asked who would win in a fight, Casey Jones or Oliver Queen, Amell said, "Oliver's a little more polished. I'd say Oliver probably takes him down eight out of ten times."

Even though this is Stephen Amell's first major theatrical release, he is obviously no stranger to action or vigilante themes. With Arrow going into its fifth season this fall, Amell says he's, "up for trying new things" when it comes to villains and story arcs for the upcoming new season.

"Sometimes trying new things means going back to basics. It doesn't have to be an overarching theme to a season. That's always been our blueprint, but it doesn't have to be one villain that shows up in episode one and stays."

Despite being attached to legendary comic franchises, Amell looks to expand into other genres in the future. "I would love to do some more action movies, but I've done a ton of action. I would love to do some comedy or drama at some point."

Amell has already branched out by teaming up with his cousin, Robbie Amell (The Flash), on a production company, Well-Fed Artist Productions. As a team, they managed to successfully crowdfund a sci-fi film, Code 8, which was originally a 10-minute short.

As for Amell directing or writing any episodes for Arrow? "No, I don't think so", he says. "I've been asked to direct a couple of episodes of Arrow and I'm busy enough during the episodes [where] I have to prep and do posts and I don't really know how that would fit in."

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows is a Paramount pictures release.