Over the 1st two seasons of "Arrow" (on the CW in the U.S. and on CTV in Canada) I have managed to catch up to the cast quite a few times, in quite a few scenarios. On set, airports, hotels, even a couple cast get togethers. As a whole, the cast has been pretty great with the regulars in town.

I have also gained quite a few photos from those encounters from times that I just, for whatever reasons, never blogged about. They somehow fell thru the cracks of larger posts at the time, or simply I didn't feel there was enough to do a post on at the time.... so here they are. My unseen pics of the past 2 years.

Firstly, the star of the show. Stephen Amell.

This past season I ran into him quite a few times, seemed for awhile he was at every location I ever went to. So these off set interactions with him might have fallen by the wayside easily enough from late this past season.

Each time, he stopped for me and the others there, and happily signed for us. Hes been a class act here, glad they cast someone who was not just physically capable of the role, but also a good guy with the public off set.

Also, if you don't already... you really should follow his Facebook Page, he is easily 1 of the more engaging & entertaining celeb son FB, and his memes he re-posts from the public are usually pretty good. Hes honestly 1 of the very few things I even go on facebook to see anymore.

Below are pics from an encounter during "Family Day" (a fake holiday B.C. invented for an extra weekend off) & 1 pic from running into him at the end of the season... as well as the WORST photo with ever (my fault...didn't gtell the guard something my camera was going to do) that I got on the set the night they filmed the tunnel scene for the finale. I am definitely gonna have to get that re-done in season 3.

Stephen Amell Official twitter profile

In season 1, I found the Arrow set just a couple blocks from my house. UNFORTUNATELY, it was 1 of the hardest rains I can ever remember me enduring at a set and was all in doors. But I was determined since I really wanted to see the man who would play Count Vertigo, again, Seth Gabel.

I had met Seth many times on the set of another show he did here "Fringe" (a couple of these pics are from then btw... I just had never used them so thought, may as well now).

I caught up with Seth, and he had 2 out of country fans there to meet him too. He stopped even in the torrential downpour to talk to them, and signed for me & my buddy. I joked with him how less than a block away was 1 of the last places I saw him when he filmed Fringe.  He told me he remembered it and when he was coming into work that day he passed it & instantly remembered what he shot there.

An added bonus that day was my 1st ever time seeing Detective Quentin Lance in person, Paul Blackthorne nearly snuck by me because I was looking the other way...but I caught him just long enough to snap off 1 pic. he then signed a couple autographs for my buddy across the street. Since then, I have seen Paul many times. Always been a great guy. Nowhere near as abrasive as Quentin is.

Seth Gabel Official Twitter Profile

Paul Blackthorne Official Facebook page
Paul Blackthorne Official Twitter profile

When Arrow originally cast the pilot of the show, they probably had not even thought of who would play Felicity Smoak. Little did they know a year later she would be the most popular female character on the show & essentially the lead female on the show.

Emily Bett Rickards got cast in the role that is now a staple of every episode. I've caught up with her many times, and shes always been really friendly with us.

Here is 1 such encounter from last May 2013 that I never managed to find time to post.

Emily Bett Rickards Official Twitter Profile

In season 2, the writers of Arrow decided to bring back the Sara Lance character.

However, they wanted someone with a background that was capable of doing physically challenging scenes. So they re-cast her.

In came relative unknown Caity Lotz. The woman who would eventually become "The Canary" (writers clearly wanting to keep the BLACK Canary title for the person they said was going to be it) became a mainstay throughout the season. I managed to catch up to her a few times early on, including this encounter as she was leaving town for Christmas break.

Caity Lotz Official Twitter Profile

In the final week of filming, I managed to catch up to 2 Arrow baddies.

1st up was the man who plays the seemingly unkillable Malcolm Merlyn. John Barrowman arrived in Vancouver to shoot his finale scenes, and I managed to get him at the airport. In true John Barrowman fashion, he gave me a couple wild poses as he came out the door to go to his vehicle. Hes always looking to leave a lasting impression on the fans.

The next day, I caught up to Deathstroke. Manu Bennett did a TV interview to promote an event he was going to be at.

I managed to catch up to Slade Wilson on his way out of the interview, and he happily signed for me, as well, told me quite candidly that it might be quite awhile, if ever, before we see Slade/Deathstroke again as nothing was guaranteed for his return in season 3. I told him the writers always find a way to bring people back, he seemed less certain.

Fingers crossed the Arrow writers find a reason to have him back sooner, rather than later.

John Barrowman Official Facebook page
John Barrowman Official Twitter profile

Manu Bennett Official Facebook Page
Manu Bennett Official Twitter profile

IF I don't get too sidetracked (which happens often unfortunately) I might write my review & opinions on season 2 of Arrow in my new TV episodes, seasons & series review blog I made (so far only has 1 whole entry...kinda slacked off on that). So you can possibly see that soon.

Arrow will start filming season 3 in Vancouver in July.

Arrow Official Facebook Page
Arrow Official Twitter Profile

The Hood & his posse are BACK!

Filming got under way last week for season 2 of the hit Rookie action drama "Arrow". I caught up to them in an area used by many shows over the years near the Hastings Street overpass in East Vancouver.

The area, which is often popular with film crews because of its ghetto, living under a bridge feel was this time home to part of "The Glades".

After "failing the city" I find Oliver, his sidekick John Diggle & his lovestruck techie Felicity Smoak rolling thru the glades in 1 of Olivers cars.

There was not much to the scene & I am sure the purpose was more to show the devastation the man made earthquake that Malcolm Merlyn concocted did, than anything they were doing in the car.

After that scene, they went to lunch. I managed to get Stephen & David to sign some autographs on their way to lunch, but missed Emily sadly. Stephen seemed excited for this upcoming season, while David seemed more cautiously optimistic. Most shows seem to suffer "sophomore slumps" and David might be thinking cautiously for that reason. But lets face it, even if Arrow does have a slump, it will still be one of the CW networks top shows.

There was a LOT of work done by the art crew of the show to prep this area for the scene. Individual posters, even more specifically, individual messages were written out & posted all over the place. I always am amazed at the detail shows will put into things like this since we all know come the final cut, little to none of it will even make it to the camera & even less will get seen clearly enough to make out the details of it. I've posted a bunch of the photos of these pieces of work that someone put their time into making, up in this post, simply because someone should recognize them for their work.

 There was a lot of messages on these pieces of work. Most common ones were "Remember the 503" which will surely be a common message early in the season, as 503 will refer to the amount of casualties from the earthquake. Another was "Blood for Mayor". Who is "Blood"? Will he be good, or bad for the residents of Starling City?

In the category of not wasting any props. Arrow crew dragged out of retirement the Bishopmobile from "Fringe" to be an abandoned car in The Glades. This is the 2nd time I have seen a Fringe related item on an Arrow set, last season, a sign on top of a Starling City Cab to "Rewardwire" a thing from Fringe season 5 that they never bothered removing.

Later, after lunch, there was another scene being done in an alley that was too far away for me to get a good view of. Stephen Amell was back for these scenes, along with his stunt double Simon Burnett. I also saw Colton Haynes, who was serenaded a couple hours before his birthday by the entire crew & the cast on hand with a round of "Happy Birthday" before they brought in an ice cream cake.

The "wow" moment of the evening was seeing Detective...errr....OFFICER Quentin Lance on Set. Paul Blackthorne was there for scenes, not dressed as his typical self from season 1, but in an Officer uniform. Suggesting after the fallout of The Glades horror, he still is a Police Officer, but has been demoted.

I couldnt see much from the spot I was in, but they had a scene at 1 point where Simon Burnett did a jump up 50-60 feet in the air on a cable.

Here they are...my 1st photos of the season from the set of ARROW from last week.

EDIT - July 18, 10:10 PM
I have just read that "Caity Lotz" has been cast as "Black Canary" YES, you read the character name right.

Reason I am adding it to this blog is the 1st photo in this section of photos below that I, at the time was taking of Paul Blackthorne. When I got home that night I noticed a blonde woman with make up around her eyes that I first thought "that looks like a Black Canary type look".
I saw the girl on set, but never saw her close up enough to notice she had the eye make up on.
I cropped the photo with her in the background, in hopes SOMEONE would see it & maybe ask "is that supposed to be Black Canary" as it was my 1st guess....of course, since everyone assumed Katie Cassidy would be that character I guess no one considered that someone else could be her.

So, is this the 1st photo on set of THE BLACK CANARY?

A couple weeks ago, The CW rookie action vigilante crime fighting hit "Arrow" did some filming in the Gastown area of Downtown Vancouver.

When I first got there they were setting up the alley for a scene where Oliver Queen ( Stephen Amell ) would jump from a rooftop of a multi-story building down onto the hood of a passing truck. Of course, they had his stunt double Simon Burnett do the potentially risky stuff, like scaling down the building with a couple pully wires holding him. Amell still did a jump on a moving vehicle to give the impression of him landing on the truck however, and more later.

From there, it was time to disembark Oliver's free ride thru the alley as the truck is stopped by a flatbed truck full of crates. First Simon would do the stunts, then Amell would follow suit. It started with jumping off the 15-20 ft tall truck onto the back of the flatbed trailer, then from there jump over the crates on the flatbed onto the ground, then of course run thru traffic, hop thru an open cab window, out the other side and down the alley. Simple right?

For most entertainers, those motions would be all the stunt man. But Stephen Amell isnt an ordinary actor. He completed all the same stunts Mr. Burnett did, except for the jump thru the cab. The only other leading man I have seen do that much of his own stunt work personally was Tom Cruise when he was here for Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol a couple years ago.

Here are a bunch of photos from the scene. Some of Stephen. Some of Simon. Some.... I even cant be sure of. More photos to come from another scene later on.... plus some video of this scene when I have time to do that.

Any "Fringe" fans that also watch Arrow should watch out for the cab in this episode & see if they blur out the top of it. Clearly they used an old NYC Taxi from the "Fringe" set as a "Rewardwire" sign was still attached to the top.

Arrow is on 8 PM on The CW Wednesday nights, or in Canada at 7 PM on CTV.