Arrow is currently shooting its abbreviated eighth and final season. And now new details about what we can expect from the upcoming 10 episodes have been uncovered.
At the end of last season, the mysterious Monitor came to collect Oliver Queen to make good on his promise to do whatever the multiverse required. However, the Monitor warned that Oliver would perish in the effort — a likely reference to the upcoming season’s Arrowverse crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Given the circumstances, fans have speculated that Oliver’s adventures with the Monitor on the new season of Arrow will all be related to the upcoming crossover. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner and executive producer Beth Schwartz has more or less confirmed as much.
In Arrow’s final season, “Everything relates to what’s going to happen in our crossover episode, which we’ve never done before.”
The episodes will also see Oliver come to terms with his impending demise. According to executive producer Marc Guggenheim, “Oliver [is told] he’s going to die, so each episode in the run-up to ‘Crisis’ has Oliver dealing with the various stages of grief that come with that discovery. So the theme really is coming to terms, acceptance.”
That journey will take Oliver far from his home base of Star City, as his work with The Monitor demands. Guggenheim explains, “Oliver is going to be traveling the world, and we’re going to go to a lot of different places.” Adds Schwartz, “This is sort of his final test because it’s greater than Star City.”
Actor Stephen Amell, who plays Oliver, also says the season will pay homage to past Arrow seasons. “Episode 1 is an ode to season 1, and episode 2 is an ode to season 3. We’re playing our greatest hits.”
Then there’s the burning question of whether The Monitor’s prophecy will really come true. Will the show’s end coincide with the end of Oliver Queen?
According to Amell, he always believed that Oliver wouldn’t make it out of Arrow alive, observing, “Because he’s a superhero with no superpowers, I always felt he should die — but he may also not die.”
The only thing we know for sure is that Arrow’s finale is a tearjerker. Of the show’s final scene, Amell said, “I cried as [Marc Guggenheim] was telling me. There are a lot of hurdles to get over to make that final scene.”
Arrow’s last season will air on Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW. The season premieres on October 15.