Arrow Series Finale: Burning Qs Answered!

Arrow series finale spoilers alert! Coming out of the superhero drama's very final episode, showrunner Beth Schwartz and Arrowverse EP Marc Guggenheim answer some burning questions about the Felicity scenes that were not meant to be, who was and wasn't resurrected, a possible new romance and other topics.

WHO NUDGED ROY AND THEA TOWARD WEDDED BLISS?

"I always wanted them to be together in the end, no matter what," says Beth Schwartz. "I love them together, and they're one of my favorite relationships in the series." But then Marc Guggenheim surprised his colleague by taking things a step further, with Roy's marriage proposal. "I think I  was doing my pass on the last scenes, and I was like, 'Ohhh, this feels right. Let's do this!'" he relates. "They've been together off and on, off and on, over the course of eight years, and I was like, 'How do we keep this from being different from the previous 20 [reconciliations]? Their relationship has to move forward, they have to make a long term commitment to each other. And [an engagement] just felt right."

HAVE WE SEEN ALL OF ARROW'S 'CRISIS' RESURRECTIONS?

For example, Moira, Tommy, Emiko and Future Zoe have been brought back, while other characters — including some that were by no means "dearly" departed — seem to have stayed six feet under. "We had large conversations, just on Arrow, about the characters who were dead and the ones that we were bringing back," says showrunner Beth Schwartz. "We spell it out in the finale that the people who were important to Oliver have come back — but that doesn't mean we won't surprise you if the [Green Arrow and the Canaries] spinoff goes [to series], or if there's another character that might come back on other shows."

WHY TELL A NEW, OLIVER/DIGGLE FLASHBACK STORY IN THE SERIES FINALE?

Even though Oliver died two episodes earlier, "we always knew that we wanted, obviously, Stephen [Amell] in the finale, apart from just the end scene," says Arrowverse EP Marc Guggenheim. "The obvious solution to that seemed to be do a flashback story, which also would honor the flashback convention that's been so important to the show, particular in its first five years."

IS THERE A FUTURE FOR TOMMY AND EARTH-TWO'S LAUREL?

Any spark you may have sensed as the two first met at the funeral was established in the writers' tone meeting and then "set in the stage direction," says EP Marc Guggenheim, quipping: "Who doesn't hook up at a funeral, right?" "They nailed it," adds showrunner Beth Schwartz, who loves the idea of Tommy (played by original cast member Colin Donnell) popping up on Green Arrow and Canaries, if it gets ordered to series in May. "Oh, we can play that in the spinoff!" she declares with a delighted laugh. "We'll find a way!"

WHY WASN'T THERE MORE FELICITY IN THE FINALE?

Though Felicity and Olicity fans had to be thrilled to get so much more than a walk into the cosmic sunset, Oliver's love almost was involved in the "new" flashbacks, as well. "The original plan was for it to be something with Oliver, Felicity and Diggle, probably circa right after Episode 114, when Felicity was sort of brought into the circle of trust," says Guggenheim. "The problem was that Emily was only available to us for two days.  If we had a third day with her we would have been able to tell that story [but] once that didn't materialize, we were like, 'Well, our backup plan is do something circa [Episode] 105, post-105, after Oliver and Diggle have started working together,' and just tell a piece of the story you didn't see, which is ... like Diggle says later... the 'proof of concept,' what that relationship could be."

WHOSE IDEA WAS THE 'VAN WAYNE' EASTER EGG?

As in that warehouse sign's nod to Alan Tudyk's character on NBC's short-lived DC sitcom, Powerless? "The art department a lot of times will tell us, 'Hey, listen, we're going to be on this location, and [we need] to cover up something...,' and we have trained them over the course of eight years to look at it as an Easter egg opportunity," explains Marc Guggenheim. "By this point we were through with 'Crisis' and I was completely spent. So I called up [DC Entertainment VP] Dan Evans, who's been my partner in crime for so much of this, and I'm like, 'OK, Easter egg for the Arrow finale. What do you think?" And that was his pitch. I was like, 'Great, wonderful, done!'"

WHAT'S THE ONE SCENARIO WHERE EARTH-ONE'S LAUREL MIGHT HAVE LIVED ON INSTEAD?

In deciding which Laurel (if not both) would live on post-Crisis, "We went back and forth on that a great deal, and truth be told, that was really driven by the [potential Green Arrow and the Canaries] spinoff," says Arrowverse EP Marc Guggenheim.  "I think if we weren't doing a spinoff, we probably would have gone a different way.

"We've really fallen in love over the years with the Earth-Two version of Laurel," he adds. "We love Katie [Cassidy]'s take on that character, we love writing for that character, and we love the complexities of that character's sort of moral seesaw. She's just always been a more interesting character to us." As showrunner Beth Schwartz notes, "In Season 7 and 8, she was really able to redeem herself, and we felt that that was such an important story for her character, to come such a long way from murdering people all the time to becoming the hero she was at the end of Season 8, and will continue to be in the spinoff, hopefully."