Stephen Amell Discusses New Role as Casey Jones

Last week, the TMNT fandom was treated to some great news regarding the casting of Casey Jones in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequel. It’s interesting that just a few years ago, fans were going into conniptions over the idea that Megan Fox would be playing April O’Neil, and yet here we are praising an excellent casting decision for TMNT 2! Stephen Amell, currently known for playing the vigilante hero in the hit television series Arrow, is now set to play everyone’s favorite bad boy in the next Ninja Turtles movie.

As if that weren’t great enough news on its own, Amell has already had an opportunity to respond to questions about his new role at a FanExpo event in Vancouver. As you might expect, a lot of the things he talks about are in the typical fashion of an actor under contract, which means that there’s a lot of fluffy language about the production studios involved. Regardless, he still had some interesting tidbits to share with the fans about this new interpretation of the character.

When asked about his feelings regarding the casting, Amell had the following to say:

“I’m just glad that I get to play a vigilante on the big screen. Obviously, the similarities are right there on the surface – he’s a vigilante – but, if the audition process and the script is any indication, the character is going to be fundamentally different (from Arrow). As a matter of fact, it’s almost like the character of Casey Jones – at least in this iteration of Ninja Turtles – is almost a little bit more like the Oliver Queen that people know from the older comic books.”

One can only hope that this might be the case, because it never hurts to go a little old school. That being said, Amell is comparing this interpretation of the Casey Jones character to a vigilante of an entirely different class in Green Arrow. Depending on what he means by “older comic books,” we could be getting either a much more goofy interpretation of the character or one that is fiercely dedicated to righting wrongs and correcting injustices. Honestly, Jones fits both of these roles quite well, so it will be interesting to see where this actually goes.

Amell went on to answer a fan question about doing this movie while still shooting Arrow:

“Doing a movie was important to me for a variety of reasons. As much as I love playing Oliver Queen, it is very important to me to stretch out a little bit. Believe me, I know I’m playing another vigilante, okay? I know this, but you’re gonna have to trust me when I say that not only is Casey Jones different from Oliver Queen, but filming a big feature film is really different than filming a television show. I had two movies that were lined up last year during hiatus, and both of them fell through at the last minute.

I’m very excited; I’m a big fan of Paramount Pictures, I mean, that’s the studio that Tom Cruise has done most of his movies through and that’s one of the people that I look up to in the industry, so I’m excited to work with Paramount. Dave Green, the director of ‘Turtles’ is a young guy, he’s a big Turtles fan, and he really sold me on the concept when we met one another in New York. As for other movies? I don’t know, but the first step to doing other movies is doing a movie, so we’ll see.”

The first thing to note here is that it is great news for Amell to finally be given a pretty big role on a film that definitely isn’t going to get canceled at the last minute. It’s also interesting to see that Tom Cruise has been a big inspiration for him, as Cruise has proven his chops by getting dirty and performing a lot of the stunts that you see in his action films. Whether or not you like the guy, it’s hard to deny that he puts a lot of effort into his work, and he’s definitely a positive inspiration for an actor like this.

In addition, it was also nice to hear that Dave Green was apparently the one who sold him on the role. We haven’t heard much from Green about his plans for the franchise, but it’s definitely nice to see that he’s a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and that he helped convince someone like Stephen to stretch his legs as Casey Jones. As we’ve noted in the past, if ‘Earth to Echo’ was any indication, Dave Green may in fact be the perfect choice to direct this film. Being that this was one of his first casting choices, one has to be fairly hopeful about what is coming next.

What do you think? Is Stephen Amell the right choice for Casey Jones? Would you rather see a more hardened vigilante or someone who is a bit more goofy? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to check out the entire Q&A in the video above!