The CW just ordered Tomorrow People, a new drama about a young man who learns he has special abilities– because he is actually a more evolved species of humans than most– and it stars Robbie Amell, cousin to Arrow star Stephen Amell. It’s kind of kismet that the casting worked out this way because you can draw parallels between the themes and demands on the actors in both shows.

Tomorrow People focuses on this young man who learns a secret about himself– something that threatens those he cares about around him, from his mother and brother to his best friend in school. Soon enough he finds himself being tugged between two worlds, trying to keep his loved ones safe and somewhat in the dark, while still wrapping his head around a much bigger picture. He joins up, even briefly, with some who have skills and abilities like him, and there’s even similarities in the characters’ relationships with their fathers.

On Arrow, Oliver’s father was taken from him too soon, and he set out to fulfill his dying wish without even really understanding what he was getting into. On Tomorrow People, Stephen (yes, that’s Amell’s character name; how’s that for coincidence!?) never knew his father but sees the chance to get to know him– or at least get to know about him– and it, too, means starting on a mission without really understand what he’s getting into.

“It’s one of those difficult decisions that you’ll always second guess, but I think it was the right decision. Being someone who’s very close with my family, if I never knew my dad, I would have made the same decision Stephen makes—going with the only person who knows or has a link to find out information about him. I feel like that was the only choice to make,” Amell said when LA TV Insider Examiner caught up with him at the F*ck Cancer party in Los Angeles.

Oh yeah, and both shows are pretty stunt-heavy. It may have taken Arrow’s Amell until episode five to have a real stunt mishap (he broke a guy’s nose), but Tomorrow People’s Amell said it happened to him on just the pilot.

“I almost made myself pass out, and that was just while I was pretending I was doing something,” Amell said.

“Tomorrow People can’t kill people. It’s one of the things that’s a benefit from our evolution, but it’s also going to hurt us in the beginning. You know when you’re watching a movie, and you get the grenade or the flashing sound? That’s what happens if a Tomorrow Person is going to kill somebody. They black out. So you’re pushing all the blood to your head, trying to get veins, trying to make it look like you’re almost about to pass out, and one of the stunt guys…accidentally did and just smoked his head off the side of a table, and I almost did the exact same thing.”

Amell didn’t let that deter him, though, and he looks forward to getting more and more physically challenged as the episodes unfold.

“I have the exact same attitude as Stephen: I will do as many stunts as they will allow me to do. It’s one of the most fun parts, I think, of doing something like this with the physical activity. It makes you feel like you really have superpowers—you’re really a superhero,” Amell said.

Tomorrow People is coming to The CW for the 2013-2014 television season. Click here for Stephen Amell’s advice to Robbie on starring in an action-packed drama.

Source: The Examiner