Pictured (L-R): Katherine McNamara as Mia, Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak and Grant Gustin as Barry Allen -- Photo: Colin Bentley/The CW -- © 2020 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The CW’s flagship Arrowverse show is coming to an end. The Arrow series finale airs tonight, January 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. Prior to the episode, The CW is airing a one-hour documentary about the show.
The series finale will see the end of the Green Arrow on the CW, at least for now. Last week, the series had a “backdoor pilot” for a new show, Green Arrow and the Canaries, which saw Mia Queen picking up the Green Arrow legacy in Star City 2040.
Stephen Amell, who has played Oliver Queen for eight long seasons, felt melancholy about the end of the show.
“I’m 38 years old, and I got this job when I was 30,” he told Entertainment Weekly in July 2019. “I’d never had a job for more than a year. The fact that I’ve done this for the better part of a decade, and I’m not going to do it anymore, is a little frightening.”
Arrow first debuted in the fall of 2012. It followed Smallville in the CW’s attempts at superhero television, and the premiere gave CW the most-watched series debut since 2009’s The Vampire Diaries.
It was midway through season 6 when Amell realized he was ready to be done playing Oliver Queen. At the time, he pitched that the show should end at the end of season 7. He wanted to spend more time in L.A. with his wife and daughter. The creators, however, convinced him to stay on for just one more season in order to wrap everything up in a way they felt good about.
That ending comes tonight, January 28. We saw Oliver die (twice) in the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, but tonight we will see the end of the Oliver Queen Green Arrow. And, it’s possible we’ll see the beginning of a new Green hero.
What to Expect From the Finale
Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) will return to the Arrowverse one last time for the series finale. She originally left the show after season 7, having played Felicity for seven years.
Felicity was originally supposed to just be on the show as a guest star, but the producers and creators loved the chemistry between her and Amell so much that they kept her on. Eventually, they put Oliver and Felicity together, giving us Olicity.
The finale will see Felicity meet grown-up Mia in 2020 for the first time, and it looks like the two will chat with John Diggle (David Ramsey) and Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) at a funeral for Oliver. There will be a lot of emotion put into these scenes, as they’re all saying goodbye to the legacy of The Green Arrow on the show, and they all said goodbye to Amell’s presence in the Arrowverse in real life.
We’ll also get some long-awaited answers in the series finale. David Ramsey (Diggle) recently said in an interview with TV Line that fans will finally get their answer about the Green Lantern question they’ve had for years: is John Diggle actually John Stewart, and will he become the Green Lantern?
Signs for the answer point to yes, until we see how they handle the answers in the episode. Diggle’s father’s last name is, in fact, Stewart. We’ve also seen that Earth-3 Flash knows Diggle as the Emerald Knight. In the previous “Elseworlds” crossover, he told Diggle that he looks different “without his ring.” When asked if fans will get the answer, Ramsey threw out an “absolutely.”
“Without a doubt. You are absolutely going to get your answers,” he said. “And well-deserved answers. We’ve been talking about this for years, and I think everyone by series’ end will be very happy.”
What’s Next for The Arrowverse?
The first show of the Arrowverse might be ending, but that doesn’t mean that the whole universe is winding down. Just the opposite of that is actually happening.
For ongoing shows, right now, fans have The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Supergirl and Black Lightning.
Coming soon to the universe are Stargirl and Superman and Lois. The former will begin airing in the spring of 2020 on both The CW and DC Universe, and the latter will begin airing in the fall. Thanks to the events of Crisis, we know that Superman now has two sons. Those sons are probably Jon Kent and Connor Kent, DC comics’ Superboys, but only time will tell how old they are or what the dynamic is with their father.
Another show that may be coming soon is Green Arrow and the Canaries. If last week’s backdoor pilot gets picked up, it’s likely that show will begin airing in fall 2020.
Tune into the CW tonight, January 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT to see Arrow come to its conclusion.
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