There’s been rumblings of it happening, but now The CW has confirmed that, yes, genre fave Arrow is to come to an end later this year.
Despite previous rumours of Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow both being wound down, it seemed massively unlikely that the show that launched The CW’s shared Arrowverse would be getting canned. But here we are, with the news that Arrow is indeed concluding after the show’s eighth season.
An official statement from producers Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Beth Schwartz read:
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. 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 honours 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.
Since this news broke, Arrow star Stephen Amell has taken to social media with his emotional thoughts and thanks:
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
Since premiering back in 2012, Arrow has gone on to become one of the great genre shows of its generation. Despite an admittedly so-so start, the series’ second season was a masterful year of television that still stands as one of the greatest single seasons of genre TV in recent memory.
As alluded to, this is also the show that launched The CW’s shared Arrowverse realm; first introducing Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen before that character was spun-off for his own The Flash show. Since then, this world has grown to encompass DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl, with a Ruby Rose-headlined Batwoman series on the way later this year and Black Lightning housed at The CW but not directly connected to the Arrowverse.
With Arrow finishing after its eighth season, that of course throws up the possibility of Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen being killed off in December’s hotly anticipated Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover that is expected to leave the landscape of the Arrowverse changed forever. And what better way to change the landscape, than by killing off the character who kickstarted this whole shared universe of shows.
Arrow is currently in the middle of its seventh season, and the show will return later this year for one final ten-episode season.
To be fair, not many genre shows reach an eighth or even seventh season, and it has been one hell of a ride for Arrow. Sure, there may have been the odd blip here or there, but this has continued to be a special TV show that has brilliantly fleshed out some of DC’s greatest characters.
As ever, expect more on all of this as we get it. And for fans of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, let’s just hope that those similar rumblings about that show been cancelled don’t prove quite as true as the initial Arrow rumours.
