Season 7 Spoilers Thread

[President_Luthor]

The prison arc felt like Oliver was dotting i's and crossing t's in terms of being at peace/finding closure with his legacy, and Oliver being the pivotal key somehow in saving Barry and Kara in Elseworlds still makes it look like Oliver is punching his ticket out in S8. They have set the stage for it.

I haven't heard about any contracts, but maybe they could give SA a KC-type contract aka Special Guest Star status in S8, if they need Oliver around. He wouldn't have to do the whole 23-ep. schedule and he could still wrap things up on his terms.

It's too bad about the ratings, as S7 is actually better so far than S6. They apparently still make money from these shows, I'm guessing from international sales, etc. It reminds me of Beauty and the Beast's situation -- horrible ratings, should have been canned, but they made some bank off int'l sales so it lasted seasons longer than it should have.

Diggle has actually been more interesting this season -- not surprisingly because he's around ARGUS and Lyla more (and much less around Oliver and Felicity). I'm expecting the second half to show Emiko proving her worth, which she'll have to do if Oliver is supposed to hand off the mantle to her next year. Roy (who would be my first pick as Oliver's successor) is the point-man in the flashforwards, though it remains to be seen if that universe is one version of the future, or the future they'll end up with. And, yes, Rene is Emiko's number one cheerleader ... he's been a fan of hers since she first showed up lol.

I don't follow TV cousins Barry, Kara or Team Sara on LOT closely any more, but I think it won't be long til The Flash starts thinking about its own "endgame" too.

[costas22]

I'm with you on this one. The CW just doesn't know when to quit on its shows. Smallville and Supernatural are prime examples. Smallville took way too long and it's clear they still don't have an end game plan to this day for Supernatural. What's worse, I've stopped watching that show completely now because I feel like they slapped me in the face by bringing back Charlie and Bobby but without bringing back the real Charlie and Bobby.

Emiko is most def their back up plan and way to essentially reboot Arrow once Amell gets written off. From what I'm told she's literally the female recycled version of Oliver, complete with using dead parents as her motivation for costume and the mystery of who killed them drives her mission. Someone told me she's even using a hideout almost identical to Oliver's original cave beneath the club in season 1.

So yeah, the CW's def getting ready to hit the reset button on Arrow soon-ish. So I guess it doesn't matter in the end that most of the original cast from season 1 is gone or dead. By next season or season after it's gonna be a whole new show basically with only a handful of these new masks remaining. I'm told Wilddog is gonna be her "Diggle", even.

From what you describe, it definitely sounds like they are making sure Emiko has a set backstory in case she has to become the lead character. She also ticks the network's box of diversity and they won't mind having another Arrowverse show spearheaded by a female character.

Like PL said, as long as there's money to be made in distribution rights, merchandise, DVD sales and whatnot, they will keep riding these shows into the ground. And it's really sad because from a creative standpoint, most of them should have been wrapped up already. When I made the decision to drop them all in 2017, this was one of my basic reasons. If you would have told me "Berlanti has a vision where Arrow wraps up in S7, Flash wraps up in S10, LoT ends in S3 (and even that would have been generous) and Supergirl ends in S5", I might have stuck around. But there's no such thing.

Arrow especially had a 5 year cycle. That's when it should have ended. When the flashbacks came full circle. By that point the writers had already run out of ideas for Oliver anyway. And yes, the Green Arrow mythos consists of more than one GA and theoretically you can keep the show going with Emiko or Connor Hawke taking over from Oliver. But they might as well change the name of the show and turn it into a spin-off. Like you said, there are very few original characters left and if the lead is going to be written off, the show can't be called Arrow anymore, IMO. At least Smallville and Supernatural kept hold of their lead characters until the end (I suppose the CW will end Supernatural if Jensen or Jared quits).

The prison arc felt like Oliver was dotting i's and crossing t's in terms of being at peace/finding closure with his legacy, and Oliver being the pivotal key somehow in saving Barry and Kara in Elseworlds still makes it look like Oliver is punching his ticket out in S8. They have set the stage for it.

I haven't heard about any contracts, but maybe they could give SA a KC-type contract aka Special Guest Star status in S8, if they need Oliver around. He wouldn't have to do the whole 23-ep. schedule and he could still wrap things up on his terms.

It's too bad about the ratings, as S7 is actually better so far than S6. They apparently still make money from these shows, I'm guessing from international sales, etc. It reminds me of Beauty and the Beast's situation -- horrible ratings, should have been canned, but they made some bank off int'l sales so it lasted seasons longer than it should have.

Diggle has actually been more interesting this season -- not surprisingly because he's around ARGUS and Lyla more (and much less around Oliver and Felicity). I'm expecting the second half to show Emiko proving her worth, which she'll have to do if Oliver is supposed to hand off the mantle to her next year. Roy (who would be my first pick as Oliver's successor) is the point-man in the flashforwards, though it remains to be seen if that universe is one version of the future, or the future they'll end up with. And, yes, Rene is Emiko's number one cheerleader ... he's been a fan of hers since she first showed up lol.

I don't follow TV cousins Barry, Kara or Team Sara on LOT closely any more, but I think it won't be long til The Flash starts thinking about its own "endgame" too.

This is another situation where they can use the source material to keep the show going for many years, PL. Even after Grant Gustin and Candice Patton move on. They can always introduce another Flash in Wally or Nora and build the show around them. And it wouldn't surprise me if there are other comic book Flashes that don't come to mind right now. Berlanti, Kreisberg and co made the mistake of introducing too many iconic characters too soon, but the Flash mythos is so big that they still have plenty to call upon. My take on the matter is that they will be best served to find a new Flash if Barry Allen is ever written off. All due respect to them, but Keinyan Lonsdale and Jessica Parker Kennedy's characters are not interesting enough to become the lead character of the show.

The big question here is how long Grant Gustin will last. He's younger than Stephen Amell, but I feel that the schedule is so grueling on him, that he may also decide that 7 years is more than enough (assuming that's how many he signed up for). If he didn't sign up for 10 years, then they will have to do something about the "Flash vanishes in Crisis" event and bring it forward (maybe that's what the crossover will be about next season). And from what I hear, the April 2024 newspaper has been mentioned a lot on the show lately.

Anyway, sorry I began rambling. I felt like talking about the shows after I caught some scenes on Netflix the other day and got nostalgic a bit. Especially when I watched Tom Cavanagh's Eobard in season 1 stuff. Those were the days...

[President_Luthor]

I think it's entirely possible that they can come up with a work-around for the 2024 headline. With Crisis coming on next year, anything is possible. Heck, Nora's arrival in the present by default has upset the order of things too. And with LoT breaking time semi-regularly, it would be so easy to alter future events that we thought were locked in. Oliver intervening with The Monitor could also contribute to this.

During the hiatus last summer, SA mentioned that he encouraged the show, writers etc to make Arrow S7 as if it were the last one with no guarantee of a S8. Even though they now have a new season, everything suggests that he is setting up his exit strategy. The prison arc, Oliver's key role in Elseworlds and Emiko all look like prepping for his departure.

Of course, he's also said he likes Supernatural's longevity, but I think somewhere in S6 he must have realized that he is getting older. Physically being GA a few more years could result in a Bruce Wayne situation in TDKR where the doc tells him he's got no more cartilage left on his bones.

Arrow is the one show that I feel would be ... something else ... without Oliver Queen. SA's departure would mark the show's end for me, even if they do a good job in handing off to Emiko, or Roy, etc. and the show goes on.