Stephen Amell is about to hang up the bow for good once The CW's Arrow comes to a close this season. But the lead of the superhero TV show that helped carve out what was once a niche category into something that was embraced on every level of the television landscape isn't content to rest on his laurels, so to speak. As Variety reports, Amell's already got a new lead role all ready to go in the new Starz drama, Heels.
Heels, the hour-long drama which has already received an eight-episode order from Starz, takes place in a Georgia town with a strong sense of community. It follows two brothers in a family-owned wrestling promotion businesses as they fight to keep control over their deceased father's legacy. Amell is set to lead the drama as Jack Spade, a villainous "heel" in the ring opposite his brother's own "good guy" persona. But outside the ring, Amell's character is touted as "a hard-working owner, a husband and father trying to make ends meet while fighting to realize his impossible dreams." With "the mind of an artist in the body of a warrior", Jack Spade's obsession with perfection and control will lead to conflict with not only those outside the family seeking to gain leverage over the business but with his family members themselves.
Anyone who's been following Amell's pro-wrestling exploits and Ninja Warrior runs outside of Arrow may have seen this one coming, or at least something similar to it. Time will tell if the Arrow fandom follows Amell to Heels and if the star can put everything he's learned on the show and off it--and inside the ring and out of it--toward crafting another compelling character on the small screen.
Behind the scenes, Heels is written by Michael Waldron (HarmonQuest), who will also write the pilot for Disney+'s Loki; Mike O’Malley (Survivor’s Remorse) is on board as showrunner for the Starz series. Waldron and O’Malley, LBI Entertainment’s Julie Yorn, Chris Donnelly and Patrick Walmsley will also serve as executive producers, though curiously Amell is not counted among their number.
