Stephen Amell explains why he was 'nervous' to return to The Flash

Stephen Amell did not want to fail Central City in his long-awaited return to the Arrowverse.

The former star of Arrow is suiting back up as Oliver Queen in this week's episode of The Flash for the first time since his series ended in 2020. And while Amell says it's "exciting" to return to his roots all these years later, he also admits he felt some anxiety going into it.

"On my first day, I was definitely a little on the nervous side," he tells EW. "I just wanted to make sure that everything was good and it wasn't tarnishing the legacy, so to speak."

But Amell's a pro, which is why those nerves subsided pretty quickly. "I was nervous on the first take, also because there was — and this is always the case — a little bit of Flash jargon that I only say when I'm on The Flash," he adds. "So I was a bit nervous for a second, but then it went away. It just felt pretty normal. I read the script about a month before I went back and shot it, and I had no notes."

In episode 9, "It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To," Team Flash throws a surprise birthday party for Barry (Grant Gustin) but things go terribly awry when Ramsey Russo a.k.a. Bloodwork (Sendhil Ramamurthy) crashes the festivities. The hour also features returns from David Ramsey (John Diggle/Spartan) and Keiynan Lonsdale (Wally West/Kid Flash).

Even before he read the script for the episode, Amell was intrigued about the idea of returning to the Arrowverse simply because of the timing. "Everything about the series finale should be in service of The Flash and Barry's story, so I'm glad we got it out of the way before then," he says. "The thing that I was most excited about was that it wasn't the series finale and that we actually have a little bit more time and space to talk about the Barry and Oliver relationship, and what's been going on with him, and what's going on with Barry."

He also loved the story that showrunner Eric Wallace came up with for his return. "I got a call from [executive producer Greg] Berlanti and he wanted to make sure that there wasn't any difficulty with finances and that we didn't go through this long back and forth trying to nail down contracts for the episode," Amell says. "He was just like, 'Hey, come on back. It's a great story,' and I said, 'Tell me about it.' And he said, 'It's actually better if you chat with the showrunner.' Eric was incredibly thoughtful and collaborative, and after about 10 minutes on the phone with him, I was just like, 'Okay, let's do it.'"

The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CW.

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