Deadline reports that Arrow‘s Stephen Amell is climbing to the top rope from network TV to premium cable. The actor will star in the upcoming series Heels for Starz, an “hourlong drama set in the outrageous world of independent professional wrestling.”
The series has been picked up for eight episodes with Mike O’Malley (Survivor’s Remorse) to serve as showrunner. The full description for the series reads:
“Heels is about the men and women who chase their dreams in the world of small town pro wrestling. Set in a close-knit Georgia community, it follows a family-owned wrestling promotion as two brothers and rivals — one of them played by Amell — war over their late father’s legacy. In the ring, somebody must play the good guy and somebody must play their nemesis, the heel (Amell). But in the real world, those characters can be hard to live up to — or hard to leave behind.”
Amell will play the role of Jack Spade, the hard-working owner of the wrestling organization, a husband and father trying to make ends meet while fighting to realize his impossible dreams. He has the mind of an artist in the body of a warrior, and a Steve Jobs-ian need for perfection and control.
Though he became a household name for playing Oliver Queen on The CW’s Arrow, Amell did appear in the actual wrestling ring, throwing down in the WWE’s SummerSlam in 2015 and going up against Arrow guest star Cody Rhodes aka Stardust.
