This Calamity Jane trailer is the weirdest Arrow reunion imaginable

As far as we can tell, the new trailer for Emily Bett Rickards’ upcoming Western film Calamity Jane—presented, its closing credit card cheerfully asserts, by Tubi Films—exists for the benefit of three kinds of people: Arrow fans, excited to see the actors who played Felicity Smoak and Oliver Queen hanging out together for a bit; fans of historical Westerns who have had a coconut dropped on their heads, and thus forgotten that Deadwood exists; and people who personally hate Stephen Amell, and would like to see him fitted in the least flattering wigs possible as some sort of tonsorial revenge.

All three will be well-served by this new trailer, which sees Rickards growl her way through the story of Martha Jane Canary, known to history/HBO watchers in the mid-2000s as Calamity Jane, as she deploys a combination of lead bullets and leaden dialogue to take down the killers of her beloved Wild Bill Hickock. (Meanwhile, our prestige-TV amnesiac history buffs will note that allegations that the two were lovers are a matter of pretty heated historical debate.) Obstructed by a sheriff’s deputy (Tom Rozon) trying to assert the rule of law in the face of her quest for vengeance, Jane ejects lines like “What life?!” and “That’s death coming for you!” as she kills a great many cowboys.

It is, in other words, profoundly strange, and pretty hokey, to the point that we keep re-watching it, trying to figure out if this is some sort of stealth Legends Of Tomorrow reboot. (If nothing else, that CW time travel series clearly had a better prosthetic hair budget.) It is nice to see Amell and Rickards back together for the first time since Arrow went off the air in 2020, but even so: We’re not sure how many people will be coming out to theaters, or even in to Tubi, to see this one when it arrives on February 2.