Ever since the announcement that Arrow would end with its upcoming eighth season, fans have speculated that Season 8 only exists to serve as a launching point for the upcoming "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover. However, Arrow Season 8 was planned long before "Crisis" was even discussed.
“We didn’t know that we were going to be doing ‘Crisis’ in Season 8," executive producer Marc Guggenheim told TVLine. "And one thing I would love to clear up is this misconception I’ve read online that ‘Crisis’ artificially extended Arrow’s life span, that the only reason we did a Season 8 of Arrow was to set up ‘Crisis.’ That’s just patently untrue."
Guggenheim went on to say that, "Even if we weren’t doing ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ in Season 8, we’d still be doing a Season 8." He also revealed the creative team had a "number of scenarios" to explain Felicity Smoak's departure, and that the idea for The Monitor to whisk Oliver away only came after "Crisis" was in place. Rickards exited the show in the Season 7 finale.
The idea to end Arrow came from series star Stephen Amell, who -- halfway through Season 6 -- decided it was time for the show to come to a close. While Amell thought the series would end with Season 7, Arrowverse producer Greg Berlanti convinced him to do one more season after that.
"I assumed that it was going to end at the end of [Season] 7," Amell said. "But Greg’s smarter than me and he had a really good idea for a limited run in Season 8.”
Returning Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, Arrow 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.