There are a lot of questions surrounding Arrow’s Season 4 finale next week, especially since its penultimate episode, “Lost in the Flood,” didn’t feel like it was setting up anything definitive (I mean there were five flashbacks). But at the recent network Upfront Presentations, Amell spoke not only about what fans can expect from the finale, but also some things to look forward to next season.
In a conversation with TVLine, Amell said that the Season 4 finale will feel “different, but look the same” as the Season 3 finale, when Oliver and Felicity rode off into the sunset. He went on to say,
“[The finale teasers are] set up like it’s going to be about rescuing Felicity, but that is very much not, at all, what the episode is about. So, for Oliver it’s less about what is he going to do vs how is he going to approach it. What is his state of mind going to be? And we deal with it in the early part of the episode.”
He also added, “We have a scene unlike anything we’ve ever done on the show — certainly with me, as Oliver — and it’s not just speaking to the team, but speaking to Star City.” He explains that there will be a little bit of a callback to a similar scene in the first episode of the season, “and then the next step of that evolution, let’s put it that way.” You can check out the video below:
Amell didn’t mention Thea as being the lynchpin in all of this, though executive producer Wendy Mericle said recently that Thea’s bloodlust will be a defining feature of the finale. Still, he did tease that “[The finale] has a lot of the closure people are looking for, and it has questions and teases for Season 5 people will be excited for.”
In speaking with Variety, Amell also talked about Season 5’s big bad:
“I’ve heard that our big bad, our villain, is something that you can really only do once you’re in the fifth, sixth or seventh season of a TV show […] as far as I know, they don’t have superpowers. I’ll tell you that.”
So it seems like the show will (hopefully) be scaling back on the magic and supernatural elements, and grounding itself more like it did in earlier seasons. But having to launch two time-travel shows with lots of supernatural elements as The Flash and Legends do forced the issue. Speaking to that, Amell said,
“‘Supergirl’ is coming, but we don’t have to introduce a new show next year. In Season 2, it was the introduction of ‘The Flash’ and crossovers there, and last year there was a lot with ‘Legends of Tomorrow,’ and we don’t have to do that this year because ‘Supergirl’ is already established,” Amell said. “So I would like to focus on a lot of the stuff that I think ‘Arrow’ does very well.”
As far as the 4-way crossover, he said,
“I’m always interested and it’s always great for fans. I just have to make sure that they balance keeping up the quality of your show — last year when they wanted me to come to ‘Legends’ and play old Oliver, I was like, ‘That would be awesome, but show me how this works in our schedule so it’s not comprising whatever episode we’re working on.’ And it was great and we did it. So I would just like to see a plan.”
Arrow’s season finale will air Wednesday, May 25th on the CW.
