Arrow has seen a ton of shakeups in the last few weeks both on and offscreen, so let's recap. First, Willa Holland left the show as Thea absconded with Colton Haynes' Roy to destroy Lazarus Pits. Then Diggle (David Ramsey) said goodbye to being a member of Team Arrow (though he's still on the show, for now). Next, EP Marc Guggenheim admitted that he and his writers "miscalculated" how much viewers would care about the Newbies in their struggle against Oliver's leadership, a storyline that has dragged on for far too long.
That same day, the series announced that Haynes would be returning as Roy (without Thea though?) to help bolster the show's roster of early seasons characters. Not long after that, it was revealed that Guggenheim and fellow EP Wendy Mericle would be leaving their showrunning duties behind (with Guggenheim now acting as a consultant, and Mericle moving over to ABC). Arrow Season 7 will therefore have a new showrunner in Beth Schwartz, a former assistant to super-producer Greg Berlanti who said for Arrow, Schwartz "has been a source of some of the show’s most exciting and memorable moments from the beginning."
And now ... another announcement! According to THR, Paul Blackthorne will be exiting the series at the end of Season 6 (which is coming up in just a few weeks). Earlier this year, Dave Trumbore made a compelling case for why Arrow should put Quentin Lance out of his misery, and he's still very right. Poor Quentin needs to find some peace. Though the THR piece did not, of course, reveal how Quentin would depart, we learned not along ago that Legends of Tomorrow's Caity Lotz (who plays his surviving Earth-1 daughter Sara Lance) will be making an appearance in the Arrow season finale. Is it because Quentin is passing from this mortal coil, or because he has made a decision to leave Star City? Is he retiring to Earth-2? Is Sara going to pick him up on the Waverider and zap him elsewhere in time where he can finally get some damn rest?
Let us know what your hopes and dreams are for Quentin's Swan Song in these final Arrow episodes this season. Also of note, Blackthorne departing also means that the only original, full-time cast members to remain since the pilot are Stephen Amell and David Ramsey (Emily Bett Rickards appeared later in Season 1 and didn't become recurring until Season 2). Changes are afoot!
Arrow airs Thursday nights on The CW.
