Stephen Amell: 'Baywatch' Reboot Is 'a Superhero Show' in Red Trunks

Stephen Amell says slipping into the red trunks for Fox's "Baywatch" reboot felt exactly like suiting up as a superhero. "Once I got on it and I put on the red trunks, I realized, like, why does this feel so familiar?" the actor said during a panel at Mipcom in Cannes. "It's because it's a superhero show. That's what it feels like to me, and that makes my job easy."

Amell knows the territory. He spent years playing Oliver Queen in the DC series "Arrow" before joining the new lifeguard cast. The parallel isn't just career trivia — it's how the production itself is framing the reboot.

How tough is a beach shoot, really?

Amell was blunt about the working conditions. He'd assumed nothing could top the night shifts on "Arrow" — 12 hours on rooftops or in damp Vancouver buildings. He was wrong.

"But man, sunrise to sunset on the beach in Venice, you go through all of the emotions," he said. "At some point you're hot. At some point you're cold. At some point you're probably itchy. It was a lot."

Still, he counts the experience as a win. "Getting to shoot, especially on Venice Beach — my family and I rented a house there — like, this is the California dream and adventure," Amell said. "It was so special."

What does the reboot change for viewers?

The original "Baywatch" launched in 1989 and ran for 11 seasons. Fremantle, which owns the property, says the show drew over a billion viewers each week across 200 countries at its peak, turning David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson into global stars.

The new version runs 12 episodes, produced by Fremantle and Fox Entertainment. Amell leads a fresh cast of lifeguards that includes Brooks Nader and Shay Mitchell. Several originals return: David Chokachi reprises Cody Madison, while Erika Eleniak, Michael Bergin and Kelly Packard appear as guest stars.

Fox president Michael Thorne, who joined Amell on the panel alongside Nader and Fremantle CEO Jens Richter, laid out the balancing act. The team wanted to "embrace what made the show so special: heroism, escapism, a beautiful, intelligent, heroic, flawed cast of characters" while updating it for a modern audience.

That update centers on the rescues. Thorne didn't shy away from the original's logic problems. "Pamela Anderson would walk up to the edge of the beach, she wouldn't even put her feet in the water — her hair was perfect, her makeup was on — and she'd reach out very gently and be like, 'Okay, I saved you!' And that just doesn't do it [for viewers today]," he said.

"So we tried to capture the heart and the humanity, the juicy soap, and I think where we really elevated it is in the rescues and what it means to be a lifeguard today," Thorne added.

In practice, that means the new series keeps the soap-operatic personal drama and the sun-drenched escapism, but grounds the lifesaving in something closer to real lifeguard work.

The rollout

"Baywatch" premieres in January 2027 on Fox. Fox Entertainment Global holds domestic distribution rights; Fremantle is handling global sales — a split that signals both companies see international value in a brand that once aired in 200 countries.

For Amell, the math is simple: trade a leather hood for red trunks, keep the hero beats. Audiences have two years to decide whether that formula still floats.