‘Arrow’ Season 8: All Your Burning Questions Answered
Preview
The Season 7 finale of Arrow was typically action-packed, with flash-forwards, death, and one major cast departure.
Those of you who can’t wait for fall to see what happens on the eighth and final season, fret not! Showrunner Beth Schwartz is breaking down all the key details you need to know.
Viewers will get to see Emily Bett Rickards’s Felicity again, right?
Beth Schwartz: That’s a hard maybe. Rickards, who announced in March that she would be exiting Arrow, is no longer a series regular. But we know Felicity is still alive and raising baby Mia, the daughter she shares with Oliver (Stephen Amell), so Schwartz hopes the fan favorite will pop by for a visit. “We knew we had to wrap her storyline up in a way that wasn’t permanent to leave the window open to see her again,” she says.
How much of the final season is leading up to the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover teased at the end of the 2018 “Elseworlds” episode?
Quite a bit, confirms Schwartz of this year’s winter crossover, which was set up by the finale arrival of the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) to whisk new daddy Oliver away to parts unknown. That twist will also serve as part of Arrow‘s series finale, says Schwartz: “This year is going to be very different because a lot revolves around our crossover.”
There are only 10 episodes left. What has to happen?
Schwartz promises “a lot of character moments and callbacks” from the show’s run. “We want to honor the series as a whole and give everyone the send-off that they deserve,” she says. Also, expect a different structure to the season, possibly more akin to how comic books play with chronology.
What about our heroes in 2040?
The team’s future offspring — William (Ben Lewis), Mia (Katherine McNamara), Zoe (Andrea Sixtos), and Connor (Joseph David-Jones) — will continue to fight the good fight. “We have something really cool planned,” says Schwartz of the flash-forwards. Fingers crossed we find out how Diggle (David Ramsey) ended up adopting Bronze Tiger’s son and what led Roy (Colton Haynes) to Lian Yu in the first place.
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Now that Sea Shimooka‘s Emiko is no more, might we see Oliver’s other half sister, Thea (Willa Holland)?
“I hope so,” admits Schwartz. Holland exited the series after Season 6 but made a cameo in Season 7’s “Emerald Archer” documentary episode, and her name has come up again as well in the series. Roy revealed that he’d been off traveling the world with her and Nyssa al Ghul (Katrina Law) in search of the three remaining Lazarus Pits.
Who will Team Arrow take on next season?
The Ninth Circle could torture Schwartz and she still wouldn’t spill. “It’s going to be a different villain than we’ve ever had on the show before,” she hints.
So, does the end of Arrow mean the end of these characters?
It’s a big Arrowverse out there, kids. And most of Oliver’s squad has played with the teams on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, and Supergirl at some point in the past. “You could see them on other shows,” teases Schwartz. “That’s the fun of it for the fans, and I’m sure for the actors as well.”
Arrow, Eighth and Final Season Premiere, Tuesday, October 15, 9/8c, The CW
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