Arrow's Stephen Amell On Revealing Oliver's Identity: We Want To Keep Those Two Things Separate

In spite of the fact that he's long said he wants his "I am Iron Man" moment, don't expect Stephen Amell's Oliver Queen to out himself as the Green Arrow anytime soon on Arrow.

The character has recently decided to run for mayor -- and in the comics, Oliver's identity was compromised shortly after he was elected to that office. That's led many -- ourselves included -- to speculate that Oliver might have to come clean to the public either during the campaign or after he's elected.

Not necessarily, Amell told ComicBook.com during a visit to the Arrow set tonight.

"That's an interesting question," Amell said. "I think that the whole idea of running for mayor -- intrinsic in it is that we're going to separate the Oliver Queen and Green Arrow character because Oliver Queen as a man representing the city can do things that the Green Arrow can't. The Green Arrow can take down the city's criminals but he can't rally a crowd with a speech. Which is one of the things that I've really enjoyed doing this year. I've had more speeches this year -- both good and bad -- than I've probably had in the first three seasons combined. So, no, we definitely want to keep those two things separate."

Of course, a devil's advocate might argue that showrunner Marc Guggenheim had previously said that it was unlikely they would even run Oliver for mayor, since depicting partisan politics on the show would run the risk of alienating much of the audience. We know now how that came out...!

Arrow airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.