Warning: The following feature contains SPOILERS for the series finale of Arrow.
Despite delivering a satisfying conclusion to the story of Green Arrow, the final episode of Arrow still left many questions unanswered. Some of these were by design, as the story of the Arrowverse is still being told, though Oliver Queen and his true love Felicity Smoak have gone on to their final reward.
While Oliver Queen died during Crisis on Infinite Earths, the team he had built to help him save his city was still active. This proved to be a good thing, as an old enemy of Oliver’s, inspired by the reports of his death, moved to kidnap Oliver’s son William Clayton as part of a twisted revenge scheme. Thankfully, many of those people whose lives were changed for the better by Green Arrow’s influence were already gathered in Star City for his funeral and they were quick to offer assistance in saving Oliver’s son.
The series finale brought the stories of most of the series’ regulars to a conclusion of some kind. Yet room was also left for most of the cast to appear again elsewhere in the Arrowverse. And some scenes suggested that the adventures of some of Oliver Queen’s allies were only beginning.
Is Diggle Becoming A Green Lantern?
The biggest question on most Arrow-heads’ minds at the end of the finale was whether or not John Diggle would become a Green Lantern. The closing montage showed Digg being knocked off his feet and thrown into the side of his moving van by a meteor. When he recovered and investigated the resulting crater, he found a box which contained a glowing green object.
Given the long partnership between Green Lantern and Green Arrow in the comics, Diggle eventually becoming a Green Lantern has been a popular fan theory since the first year of Arrow. The show has teased at this theory before, with reveals like Diggle’s stepfather’s last name being Stewart (as in the Green Lantern John Stewart) and The Flash of Earth-90 recognizing Diggle and asking where his ring was. Unfortunately, despite the producers of Arrow being hard at work developing a Green Lantern series for HBO Max, they’re keeping quiet on whether or not David Ramsey will be a part of it as the Green Lantern Corps’ newest recruit.
Will Diggle and Lyla Show Up In Superman & Lois?
Another major change revealed by Arrow’s series finale was that John Diggle and Lyla Michaels were moving themselves and their children to Metropolis, after Lyla accepted a promotion to an unspecified government organization. Even if Diggle doesn’t become Earth-Prime’s Green Lantern, there’s a good chance we may see him and Lyla in The CW’s upcoming Superman & Lois series. Particularly if Lyla’s new job involves her being part of the Special Crimes Unit of the Metropolis Police Department, which works with Superman to deal with metahuman and alien criminals.
How Exactly Did Oliver Bring People Back To Life?
“Fadeout” revealed that many people close to Oliver Queen who died because of his failures as a vigilante were now alive in the post-Crisis timeline, including his mother, Moira Queen, and Mayor Quentin Lance. Oliver was credited with saving these lives, but it is unclear precisely how he accomplished this or if it was tied into his powers as The Spectre. While The Spectre had some limited ability to alter reality in the comics, Oliver’s actions in Crisis on Infinite Earths seemed to be limited to holding the Anti-Monitor at bay and it was suggested that it was the Paragons who did the heavy lifting when it came to molding the shape of the new Arrowverse.
Why Does Oliver Only Seem To Care About Star City?
Assuming that Oliver did have the power to reshape the new Arrowverse, another question arises regarding the state of the new reality; why did Oliver only seem to focus his phenomenal cosmic power on improving his home town? While Star City is poised to enter an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity with no crime for 20 years and most of Oliver Queen’s loved ones restored to life, it does beg the question as to why Oliver didn’t see fit to stop Lex Luthor from rewriting reality to make himself a beloved billionaire philanthropist.
While the rules are not explained (indeed, Quentin Lance says there’s no way of them knowing how these things work), it seems likely that Oliver was limited in the degree to which he was allowed to rewrite reality. One possible limit is that he could only alter those places, people, and events with which he had interacted directly while alive and twist fate to move in slightly different ways. This idea is suggested by Moira Queen, when Thea asks why Oliver didn’t bring his father back to life. Moira believed that Robert Queen had to die in order for Oliver to become the man who saved Star City and preventing Robert’s death would have undone everything else Oliver Queen had died to accomplish.
How Will Stephen Amell Return For Cameos In The Future?
Stephen Amell announced that despite his desire to leave Arrow after eight seasons, he was open to returning to the role of Oliver Queen and making cameo appearances in other Arrowverse series in the future. Apart from flashbacks, it is unclear just how this could be possible. The final scene of “Fadeout” made it clear that Oliver and Felicity are perfectly happy in their personal paradise and the Monitor specifically told Felicity that there was no going back from where he was taking her.
How Did Dinah Wind Up In 2040 With No Record Of Existing?
One mystery introduced in the pilot for Green Arrow and the Canaries centered around Dinah Drake (aka Black Canary) and how she had all record of her existence in 2020 erased and woke up in Star City 2040 one day after attending Oliver Queen’s funeral. Strangely enough, the Arrow series finale revealed that Dinah turned down a position as the Police Chief of Star City in favor of going to another town that needed a hero, leaving Star City on her motorcycle in the final montage. While Dinah’s fate in the finale doesn’t wholly conflict with what it was said happened to her in “Green Arrow and the Canaries,” the questions of how she became a woman without a past and a woman out of time remain mysteries.
Will Rene Become Mayor of Star City in 2020?
With Quentin Lance planning to retire as Star City’s Mayor once his term ended in April 2020, he threw his support behind Rene Ramirez’s run to replace him. Rene was said to be running for City Council in the season 8 episode “Present Tense” and he was the mayor of Star City in the original flash-forwards from Arrow season 7. A news report in the Green Arrow and The Canaries pilot made mention of Mayor Ramirez running for a third term, but it did not confirm that Rene was the Mayor Ramirez in question. Unless mayors serve a ten-year term in Star City, it seems unlikely that Rene is destined to become Mayor of Star City in the immediate future. It’s also possible that he was replaced by someone with the same surname.
Will Talia and Thea Still Form A New League of Assassins?
After defeating the Thanatos Guild in Arrow, season 8, episode 3, “Leap of Faith,” Talia Al Ghul and Thea Queen decided to join forces and reform Talia’s students into a new organization that would use the teachings of the League of Assassins for the cause of good. While both characters appeared at Oliver Queen’s funeral in the Arrow series finale, the two did not interact and nothing was said about their still working together in the wake of Thea’s acceptance of Roy Harper’s marriage proposal. While there’s nothing to stop Thea from getting married and co-managing a global vigilante team, it still seems like something should have been said about the partnership between the two women.
How Did Earth-1 Laurel Die In The New Reality?
One of the more shocking revelations to come out of Oliver Queen’s funeral was that the newly resurrected Tommy Merlyn (who had originally died in Arrow’s first season finale) had gotten married to Laurel Lance in the post-Crisis reality. Despite this drastic change, Laurel still died several years later. While the details are not discussed, it seems likely that Laurel still died at the hands of Damien Darhk during the events of Arrow season 4 in the post-Crisis reality. Trying to change that point might have undone many of the events of Legends of Tomorrow seasons 2 and 3, which centered around Sara Lance’s efforts to hunt down the man responsible for murdering her sister.
Will Laurel and Tommy Start Dating?
Still recovering from the fact that there was a reality where he’d died almost seven years earlier, Tommy Merlyn spoke with the Laurel Lance of Earth-2 and revealed how, in the new timeline, he had gotten married to her doppelganger. Laurel commented that it must be weird for Tommy to see her. Tommy agreed that it was “strange enough to blow the curve” but there was still something nice about seeing her despite that. While there was nothing in Laurel’s response to indicate her thoughts, it seemed clear that Tommy was thinking about his lost love and wondering if he might find have found a second chance at happiness. This could prove an interesting subplot should Green Arrow and The Canaries be picked up as a series.
Is Nyssa Coming Back Into Sara’s Life?
The romance between Nyssa Al Ghul and Sara Lance was largely forgotten after Sara left the series to star in Legends of Tomorrow. A brief scene in the episode “River of Time” eventually resolved the relationship, revealing that Sara had met with Nyssa while she was imprisoned by the League of Assassins and been urged by Nyssa to forget about her and live a good life free of the League’s influence. The two met again at Oliver Queen’s funeral, where Nyssa introduced Sara to her sister Talia as “my beloved.”
Many fans have wondered if Nyssa might try and win Sara back once she was at liberty, despite Sara now being in a relationship with fellow Legend Ava Sharpe. This has led to a friendly rivalry of sorts between actresses Katrina Law and Jes Macallan, who have jokingly fought over Caity Lotz online and at convention appearances. Still, the question remains; will we see Nyssa make a play for Sara in the future?
How Will The CW Schedule All These Arrowverse Shows?
While Green Arrow and The Canaries has not been picked up as a series yet, The CW still has a schedule packed with DC Comics shows in the wake of the Arrow series finale. Even ignoring Stargirl (which will air on Saturdays after premiering one day earlier on the DC Universe streaming service), The CW will have The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Supergirl, Black Lightning and Superman and Lois starting new seasons in late 2020. While it seems unlikely that fans are going to get bored of the Arrowverse anytime soon, it remains unclear just how The CW plans to stagger the schedule so they aren’t broadcasting superhero shows every night of the week.
More: Will Arrow Season 9 Ever Happen?
