‘Arrow’ To End With Final 10 Episode Season 8 In The Autumn
And so it has come to pass. The first of the Arrowverse shows is ending, and as you might expect, it’s the one that kicked it off that will end first, ‘Arrow‘.
Stephen Amell, who plays Green Arrow/Oliver Queen on the series, made the announcement on Twitter this evening saying “Playing Oliver Queen has been the greatest professional experience of my life… but you can’t be a vigilante forever. Arrow will return for a final run of 10 episodes this Fall. There’s so much to say… for now I just want to say thank you.”
Playing Oliver Queen has been the greatest professional experience of my life… but you can’t be a vigilante forever.
Arrow will return for a final run of 10 episodes this Fall.
There’s so much to say… for now I just want to say thank you.
— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) March 6, 2019
That was followed by a statement from the producers who added “This was a difficult decision to come to, but like every hard decision we’ve made for the past seven years, it was with the best interests of Arrow in mind,” announced execs Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Beth Schwartz. “We’re heartened by the fact that Arrow has birthed an entire universe of shows that will continue on for many years to come. We’re excited about crafting a conclusion that honors the show, its characters and its legacy and are grateful to all the writers, producers, actors, and — more importantly — the incredible crew that has sustained us and the show for over seven years.”
The decision to end the series came after Amell approached the producers at the end of Season 6 saying he would like to leave the show. He personally had hoped that it could maybe continue without him, but the producers ultimately decided it was time to bring it to a close. You can see a very emotional Stephen chatting about the decision on a Facebook video here. He does also hint that it’s likely that it’s not the last we’ve seen of him, so it would seem he is not adverse to coming back for the odd cameo if the producers should ask.
‘Arrow’ first launched back in 2012 on The CW in the US, and I don’t think anyone could have imagined it would spawn the massive universe-spanning collection of superhero shows that it did. As you know if you have been following the news, they are looking at adding in ‘Batwoman’ to the line up in the Autumn. That series is technically still a pilot and not yet officially picked up… However, this announcement makes it seem extremely likely it could now slot in as a direct replacement, trading arrows for batarangs.
It would make sense if the 10 episode Season 8 run coincides with the 2019 “game changing” ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’ crossover event. It has been teased that the show will feature a “major death”, so it is very possible that Oliver Queen might be the one who doesn’t make it out alive… Not that being dead as a comic book character ever seems to stick… We will have to wait and see.
Part 2 Of ‘Arrow‘ Season 7 is currently airing Tuesday nights at 8pm on Sky One in the UK.
