As Arrow wraps up its eighth and final season, series co-creator Marc Guggenheim revealed his initial pitch for the flagship Arrowverse show, which he developed with prolific television producer Greg Berlanti.Guggenheim pointed out how interesting it is to see what changed from the initial pitch to the pilot episode, and fans of the show will immediately spot some key differences. The pitch wanted Oliver Queen in much worse shape than what audiences eventually got. It saw Oliver suffering serious dental damage, anemia and scurvy, among other things.
Originally, Guggenheim and Berlanti wanted Oliver to have 60% of his body covered with scar tissue and second degree burns, but that number was brought down to a more manageable 20% when it came time to shoot the first episode.
Besides his physical state, the pitch has no mention of Oliver's infamous run through the forest at the start of the series, something that has been mimicked in some way for every Arrow season premiere since then. It also doesn't mention the pilot's most buzzworthy moment: the reveal of the Deathstroke mask with an arrow through its eye.
Besides the character descriptions being different, the other big change is that Starling City was originally named Starkton City in early development. So, no matter what, producers always intended to have the eventual Star City be named something else at the beginning of the show.
Airing Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, Arrow's final season stars Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen, David Ramsey as John Diggle, Rick Gonzalez as Wild Dog, Juliana Harkavy as Black Canary, Katie Cassidy as Black Siren, Katherine McNamara as Mia Smoak, Joseph David-Jones as Connor Hawke and Ben Lewis as William Clayton-Queen.