‘Arrow’s’ Stephen Amell breaks down the Dolph Lundgren experience

When it was announced that action movie legend Dolph Lundgren would be joining the fifth season of “Arrow” as part of the Bratva flashbacks, it caught everyone by surprise — including star Stephen Amell. Now, after the latest episode, his character Konstantin Kovar has been officially introduced. And though little was seen of him in the episode, it’s been made clear that he’s a force for great destruction.

For Amell, that’s where the fun begins. “It’s been a blast to work with him — it’s been awesome,” he says. It’s also been an entirely unique experience for the actor, who has worked with a number of high-profile guest stars throughout “Arrow’s” five seasons.

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“It’s interesting watching someone that has cut their teeth in film walk onto a 23-episode a year television show with 14-hour days, because he just moves at his own pace,” Amell admits. “It’s not indulgent; when he came to set, he knew his stuff — not that I expected anything less — he was very respectful, he asked a lot of questions, he’d clearly done his homework, but it’s like … Dolph moves the way that he moves and he’s very thoughtful and contemplates his lines.”

Given that he’s been making movies for over three decades — starting with 1985’s “A View to a Kill,” it makes perfect sense that Lundgren would be used to moving at his own speed. That pace is a big change from the usually frenetic schedule of “Arrow,” though. After all, you try filming a four series crossover event and see how quickly things need to get done.

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That said, it’s an experience both for himself and the show as a whole that Amell wouldn’t trade.

“I do think that it would’ve been a missed opportunity in the last year of these flashbacks to not have a really worthy adversary,” Amell says. “And we’ve found that in Dolph, which is why he’ll be around for a while.”

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If fans are lucky, the rivalry between Oliver and Konstantin will go down as one of the show’s most epic. It’s already off to a strong start and if this is, in fact, the last season of flashbacks then why not go out with a bang?

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