Arrow is ending, but the Arrowverse lives on.
Actor Stephen Amell, the star of the CW series Arrow, has announced via his official Twitter account that the long-running superhero drama will end this fall with a final Season 8 run of ten episodes. Amell, who plays DC Comics superhero Green Arrow/Oliver Queen, posted the following:
The news that Season 8 of Arrow will only be ten episodes long makes it likely that the show will lead directly into the Fall 2019 Arrowverse crossover event "Crisis on Infinite Earths", based on the classic DC Comics maxi-series from 1985-86. In the DC comic book series, notable superheroes Supergirl and The Flash were killed off, which now leads to speculation about whether Green Arrow will die during the Arrowverse crossover.Playing Oliver Queen has been the greatest professional experience of my life... but you can’t be a vigilante forever.— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) March 6, 2019
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.
Amell also posted a livestream video on his Facebook account, thanking both the Arrow production team and, of course, the show's fans. In addition, he explained exactly why the show will be ending, detailing the various aspects that ultimately led to the decision.
He remarked, "Towards the end of Season 6, I approached [executive producer] Greg Berlanti, who I will be thanking in a second, and said that I thought, both personally and professionally, that at the end of my commitment this coming season it would be the best for me to move on. I've always been a fan of television shows that not only don't overstay their welcome, but end in a manner that really packs a punch. And so, it had always been my hope that we would know when we were gonna finish this journey and not limp to the finish line, so to speak.
"After a lot of discussion, Greg and I decided that the best way to do this would be to have me come back for a limited run in Season 8, which is what we're gonna do. And, from there, I had always hoped that beyond the seventeen different shows that Arrow has spawned (I'm kidding, it's only like sixteen) that there was a possibility that the show could live on beyond me, because the entity of Oliver Queen and the character, and the mythos, and the iconography of Green Arrow has always been something that's bigger than me or any other actor that's playing him or voicing him. There's always been something more to it.
"I spoke with [showrunner] Beth Schwartz and [series creator] Marc Guggenheim this past Friday, and then Greg Berlanti this past Friday night, and it was the decision of WB and CW and Beth and Greg and Marc, in a very mutual way, based off of what they thought was best for the show creatively and being very honorable and respectful as it pertains to my wishes, that we were gonna end after a 10-episode run next year."
From there, Amell addressed the personal reasons for his decision. "Even though I've known that this is coming, it is still a very emotional time, because I have been on the show in what can only be described as a fundamentally transformational, nearly decade-long run in my life. (As someone) who started as an actor who doesn't have a lot of experience, who was, you know, sort of dating someone, to now...a large part of this decision being because I am now a father and a husband and a lot of my life and interests now don't really reside in Vancouver anymore and thinking that that's the best thing for me personally and professionally. To say that it has been a real sea change over the past seven plus years would be a vast understatement."
Arrow Season 7 currently airs on Monday nights at 8 p.m. on The CW, with Season 8 airing sometime this fall.