One of the creators of Arrow has shared The CW show’s original pitch notes, which include a character that never made it to screen. With Arrow going off the air in January 2020, fans don’t have long before the show is gone for good. Arrow was created by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Marc Guggenheim, and the hit show has given birth to an entire multiverse of other shows. The Arrowverse, based on characters from DC Comics, now includes Supergirl, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, and, most recently, Batwoman. Starring Stephen Amell as the Green Arrow, the salmon-ladder conquering vigilante with a fondness for archery and justice, Arrow has run for eight seasons on The CW.
In the weeks ahead, Amell will join his fellow Arrowverse stars for the highly anticipated Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. The latest team-up will include dozens of characters from across the Arrowverse, and the special will have major implications for the DC heroes. Then, on January 28, 2020, audiences will finally have to say goodbye to the longest-running DC comics show on The CW. Already, cast members are saying goodbye with emotional tributes to the show.
On Twitter, Arrow creator Marc Guggenheim shared the original pilot pitch notes he created with Greg Berlanti. Guggenheim posted the pitch notes to commemorate the final day of shooting on Arrow, which officially began at 11:30 a.m. PST on November 13. In addition, Arrow’s showrunner also posted a heartfelt letter to the show’s dedicated cast and crew. The pilot pitch notes, which refer to the show as “The Hunter,” introduce Oliver Queen and other crucial characters that will be very familiar to Arrow fans. Dated September 2011, the pitch notes describe characters like Thea Queen and Detective Quentin Lance almost exactly as they would eventually appear on the show. However, the pitch notes also refer to a character named Stanley Dover, described as a brilliant and eccentric computer genius. Ultimately, that character never appeared in the pilot or later seasons, at least not as described in the pitch. Otherwise, the pitch notes track well with the pilot that aired in 2012. The first page of the pilot notes introduce Oliver Queen on the remote island of Lian Yu.
Dedicated Arrow fans may realize that Dover did eventually appear in the Arrowverse. Actor Brendan Fletcher played a villain named Stanley Dover in season 7, a far cry from the friendly computer savant teased in the pilot pitch notes. Based on the description of Dover, it appears that showrunners axed the character, instead opting to create several characters to fill his role. In particular, the role of resident computer genius was played by Felicity Smoak, who also married Oliver Queen.
We open on a REMOTE ISLAND literally in the middle of nowhere. Huge, with lush forests. A man could literally get lost here for years. As we’ll soon discover, one man has.
Over the course of eight seasons, the characters teased by Guggenheim’s pilot pitch notes have evolved tremendously. And none more so than Oliver Queen himself, who has come a long way since his days trapped on the remote island of Lian Yu. From his early days climbing that salmon ladder alone in his headquarters to the expansive Team Arrow seen in later seasons, Oliver Queen has undergone quite a journey. As the cast and crew bid farewell to the hit show, the Arrowverse will live on. Yet it all started with Arrow, a little show that changed the TV landscape for the better.
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Source: Marc Guggenheim
