‘Arrow’ Bosses on Emily Bett Rickards’ Exit: ‘She Will Always Have a Family’ Here

And just like that, #Olicity exploded like a Star City warehouse.

Saturday afternoon, Arrow fan favorite Emily Bett Rickards took to Instagram to announce that she would be leaving the CW show at the end of its current seventh season.

It was patently Felicity Smoak: Cute, smart and just cheeky enough to take some of the sting away from the bad news. Oh, and it rhymed.

 

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❤️🖤💛💕💜💙 The time has come to talk of many memes. Of bows and arrows and superheroes and Olicity and Queens And why TGA is so damn hot And yes, canaries need more scenes… But wait just one minute before we go and do all that For this makes me out of breath To have this not small chat Felicity and I are a very tight two But after one through seven we will be saying goodbye to you I thank you all for the time we’ve shared The elevators we have climbed The monsters we have faced and scared And The burgers we have dined I will keep her in my heart for always And I hope that you can too Because she would not be alive if it weren’t for all of you 💕 Love, Felicity and Me

A post shared by emilybett (@emilybett) on Mar 30, 2019 at 11:24am PDT

The post comes four weeks after the news that Arrow‘s upcoming eighth season would be its last and over a weekend when thousands are gathering in Anaheim for WonderCon 2019. While the show is not presenting a panel there, showrunner Beth Schwartz and executive producer Greg Berlanti have weighed-in on the actress’ departure, via a statement sent to the press:

We’ve had the pleasure of working with Emily since season one and in those past seven years she has brought one of TV’s most beloved characters to life. And although we’re heartbroken to see both Emily and Felicity leave the show, we’re completely supportive of Emily and her future endeavors. She will always have a family at Arrow.

Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak and Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Jack Rowand/The CW)

Rickards was originally a guest star with a three-episode recurring role as an I.T. employee of Queen Consolidated. But she sparked so dynamically with Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen that the producers expanded Felicity into a full-time cast member and original member of Team Arrow beginning in Season 2.

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Since then, her M.I.T.-trained genius has dated a pre-Legends of Tomorrow Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), been paralyzed, revealed her college goth past, married Oliver and overseen the renovations on countless lairs. Most recently, Felicity announced her pregnancy and, thanks to this season’s future-set storyline, we know that the CEO of Smoak Industries will give birth to daughter Mia (Kat McNamara) and at least live until 2040.

Unless something tragic happens to change that future. God knows this development has done a doozy on Arrow‘s.

Arrow, Mondays, 8/7c, The CW