Fans of Stephen Amell’s performance as Oliver Queen on the hit superhero series Arrow can now watch Heels on Netflix, the Canadian actor’s riveting follow-up series that aired on the Starz network from 2021 to 2023. The underrated sports drama centers on the wrestling rivalry between two brothers on opposite sides of the ring, one portraying a fictional hero and the other as a heel (the industry term for villain), blurring the line between fiction and reality.
Beyond the intense fighting matches and grueling stuntwork that occurs, the show’s dramatic sway revolves around the brothers’ attempt to do right by their late father and make him proud as they continue his legacy. With a compelling mix of action and drama, Heels proves Amell can play an unmasked antihero with just as much credible pathos as he lent to Arrow for nearly a decade.
Heels Is About a Rivalry Between Wrestling Brothers
Created by Michael Waldron for the Starz network, Heels is a sports drama that aired 16 episodes between 2021 and 2023. Canceled before its time, the drama concerns the fabricated showbiz rivalry between Jack Spade (Stephen Amell) and his younger brother Ace Spade (Alexander Ludwig). The two brothers wrestle for the Duffy Wrestling League (DWL) in small-town Georgia, where they act out scripted matches pitting the two against each other. Jack plays the villainous heel, while Ace portrays the so-called hero.
The show’s brilliance partially comes from how it toys with public fan perception, blurring fact and fiction by amplifying the sibling rivalry. Jack and Ace play their fictional roles inside the ring convincingly to make the wrestling matches as intense as possible. Outside the ring, the real rivalry between Jack and Ace relates to their late suicidal father, King Spade (David James Elliot), as they try to honor his memory and keep his wrestling legacy alive and well.
Meanwhile, as Jack and Ace become more popular and expand their matches beyond their small-town Georgia home, they deal with shady promoters in Florida, volatile wrestlers, greedy business partners, opportunistic scouts, concerned family members, etc.
Stephen Amell’s Preparation & Performance
Watching Heels, it’s apparent that Stephen Amell is a legitimate wrestling fan. Growing up as a hardcore wrestling enthusiast, Amell attended WWF’s WrestleMania VI in 1990 and worked a match for the WWE in 2015. As such, it’s no surprise that Amell fully immersed himself in his performance as Jack Spade in Heels.
While performing a stunt for a scene in the pilot, Amell broke his back on the first day of filming in October 2020. According to Amell in an interview with ABC about the injury:
“I overshot it coast to coast on our first day of filming wrestling stuff and suffered a compression fracture. I’m very fortunate and lucky that it was an injury that sounds scary, but didn’t require surgery. [It] just sort of healed on its own.”
Following the injury, showrunner Michael Waldron assured the actor that his schedule would be shifted to accommodate his recovery. However, the pain didn’t keep Amell away too long, as his affinity for wrestling helped him return to work ASAP. In the same interview, Amell stated about his past wrestling experience:
“Anyone who thinks that I’m going to give up the life of hair and makeup and drivers and someone making my breakfast, lunch and dinner, for life on the road in professional wrestling is out of their [expletive] mind!”
Beyond Amell’s committed turn, Heels boasts authentic matches thanks to real-life wrestlers in the cast, including CM Punk, PJ Hawx, Doc Gallows, and more. Unfortunately, despite receiving critical acclaim, Heels was canceled following Season 2.
Why Was Heels Canceled?
With an 8.0 IMDb rating and 94% Rotten Tomatoes Score (critics and audience), Heels delivered high-quality, substantive entertainment for those who tuned in. Yet, according to Yahoo!, the show cost too much to produce and was likely canceled due to its low viewership relative to its expenses and low returns. Variety also reported that with Starz canceling Blindspotting and Run the World, the ending of Heels could mark a larger content shift for the network.
Fortunately, Netflix’s new business model is to purchase the rights to TV shows produced by other networks and host them on its platform, where they often enjoy far more success than on its original channel. While Heels is no longer available to stream on Starz, it can be seen by millions of Netflix subscribers, likely giving the sports drama its just due after the beloved show was canceled too soon.
As for Amell, fans can follow his post-Heels run in three upcoming projects, including the legal drama Suits: LA, the crime drama Little Lorraine, and Cliff Dorfman’s 86. Dorfman wrote the outstanding 2011 MMA drama Warrior, which shares many similarities with Heels, including rival hero and villain brothers doing their best to live up to their father’s training.
Heels is available to stream on Netflix.
