Arrow returns for a seventh season this fall and fans are chomping at the bit to learn the outcome of the cliffhanger. Newsarama recently chatted with the cast. Check out the hints and info below:
Arrow’s season 6 finale left fans with a major cliffhanger as Oliver Queen reveals to the world that he is Green Arrow, and is sent to jail. So how will the world – and especially Star City – react to not having their vigilante around? It’ll definitely be a story in this fall’s seventh season according to the titular star Stephen Amell, but his character knows nothing about it.
“We touch upon that a little bit in the premiere, and the lack of vigilantes in Star City, but Oliver has effectively no contact with the outside world,” Amell told Newsarama. “His day-to-day and his prison time is just that – just time.”
And that’s time he’s sharing with many of the people he has put away over the past six years.
“He is in jail with people he put in jail,” said the actor. “We have been very fortunate to get some people back on the show that you haven’t seen in a while.”
Being in prison has changed Queen, with some of these adversaries’ bad sides rubbing off on the playboy billionaire-turned-hero.
“The thing I really enjoy playing in the premiere is there’s absolutely nothing heroic about Oliver. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite,” said Amell. “If you are a fan of his, and you root for him, I would really hope the premiere makes you mad.”
The season 7 premiere will be directed by one of the show’s longtime stunt coordinators, James Bamford. He said that he’s bringing in some of the classic feelings of the inaugural season, but also with some new elements mixed in.
“In the premiere you will find some elements with the Season 1 feel, but you will find other elements that is new, uncharted territory,” said Bamford.
James said he and the newly-promoted showrunner Beth Schwartz have intense plans for this fall that led them to having a meeting with the networko’s censors.
“Beth and I had a phone call with BNSP, which is our censors… a very lengthy phone call about a particular scene that we never had before. So we are really trying to push the limits on the show in the gritty factor,” Bamford revealed. “We are trying to go as far as you can go within the confines of our network and what is expected of us and what we can and can’t do. We are not on Netflix so we will never be able to X, Y, and Z, but we are damn sure going to try.”
Schwartz said that with Ollie in prison, there will be a new dynamic with Team Arrow – and in some cases it involves a lot of distance.
“Everyone is spread out doing their own thing. They all get along; everyone has made up since the end of last season, but they’ve all found what makes them a hero to the city that was not necessarily being on the team without their leader,” Schwartz said. We are going to find them in different roles than we have before.”
Arrow‘s Wild Dog, a.k.a. actor Rick Gonzalez said the upcoming season is about redemption.
“What I’m instructed to say is redemption. That’s been Wild Dog’s theme the entire time, is redemption,” said the actor. “Personally speaking from his perspective, what other choices of him becoming a vigilante, with Oliver going to prison now. Oliver gave a directive saying hey, keep on fighting. So now we will have to see how Rene interrupts that. I think this entire season will take us all the way back to the beginning of why each character decided to become a vigilante or not and all of the choices they’ve made in between that leads them to this moment here, which would be the redemption arc we would like to complete for this season.”
Gonzalez is looking forward to expanding his character’s relationship with his daughter, Zoe, and the possibility of her becoming a vigilante superhero.
“They would share the love of guns and knives. It would be awesome. That is the normal way to parent,” Gonzalez joked. “What do you think of these glocks, sweetheart?”
Juliana Harkavy said this coming season will be complicated for her character Dinah – and for good reason: her in-story father figure Quentin Lance died in last season.
“It’s complicated,” said Harkavy. “But I do think the death of Quentin gave her a little bit of empathy for Black Siren.”
Schwartz also revealed that with the new season there will be a new mayor of Star City. That job has been a bit like musical chairs she admits, but teases who’s to come.
“It’s the worst position, we joke about that, that is not a popular role,” said Schwartz. “Yes, there will be a new mayor. You will see.”
