‘Arrow’: Paul Blackthorne to Return as Quentin Lance for Final Season
Paul Blackthorne’s Quentin Lance (at least on Earth-1) may be dead — as is the actor’s NBC drama The InBetween after one season — but fans will get to see him on Arrow again before it ends.
Blackthorne will be “in multiple episodes” in Season 8, TVLine reports. While that does have us wondering how — he was killed by Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo) while saving Earth-2 Laurel’s (Katie Cassidy) life in the Season 6 finale — it’s not like the Arrowverse hasn’t brought back dead characters before.
After all, there are doppelgangers, and we’ve even met one of Lance’s (from Earth-X during one of the annual crossovers). Laurel’s doppelganger is now a member of the team after working with a couple Big Bads. The Earth-2 versions of Tommy (Colin Donnell), Moira (Susanna Thompson), Malcolm (John Barrowman), and Chase (Josh Segarra) — characters who have all died on Earth-1 — appeared in the Season 8 premiere.
With the upcoming “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” which has already started to affect Arrow by wiping Earth-2 from existence — but that version of Lance was already dead — it’s always possible we see a very different Lance in some way.
And as we’ve seen with Donnell’s past appearances, the “dead” have also returned in hallucinations. Blackthorne himself even appeared as Lance after his character’s death, in the 150th episode, in a documentary clip that recalled his time when he was “conflicted” about vigilantes.
There are certainly quite a few ways to bring Lance back, including flashbacks, and for now, it’s likely the only one we can rule out is someone dipping him in a Lazarus Pit (before Thea, Roy, and Nyssa destroyed them).
(Jack Rowand/The CW)
Blackthorne’s return is just the latest to be announced for the final season. The first three episodes have featured several past characters, including the aforementioned premiere guest stars and Willa Holland. Emily Bett Rickards will be back as Felicity in the series finale, and Colton Haynes will return as Roy this season as well.
Arrow, Tuesdays, 9/8c, The CW
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