Arrow: EPs Talk Oliver’s Son & The Fallout For “Olicity”

Nearly two seasons since the plot was first hatched in Arrow Season 2, this year’s crossover between Arrow and The Flash brought back Oliver Queen’s child and revealed that he is not the comic book character Connor Hawke, as many had expected.

So who is “William,” and why not go with the familiar character from the comics?

(Warning: Plot points for tonight’s “Legends of Yesterday” are being discussed within.)

“Part of it was that we didn’t want to be tied in necessarily to a character like Connor not being able to be a part of the show, if we made him so young; to give us the leeway to still have Connor Hawke be part of the universe without tying that in, that was the biggest reason we made that decision,” Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg said in a press Q&A earlier this week.

“It’s actually one of the things that I think all of us are most proud of,” Kreisberg added, praising the production partners the show has at Warner Bros. Television, DC, and The CW network. “We were able to basically have one scene in one episode in Season Two, knowing that we were eventually going to get to this point, and that it is all set up, and it is all tied in to Oliver’s mother. Susanna [Thompson] has not been with the show for a while now, yet her presence is still felt all throughout this story. I mean, there are some things that happen when you do a show for a long time that are happy accidents, and then there are other things that you plan on, and this is one that we really planned on, and we were really proud of,” he enthused.

Kreisberg added that Anna Hopkins, who played the mother of the child, William, has a lot of opportunities but “really took a flyer on us” when taking the role, being promised that she would return in Season 4. “I just want to make sure that we give her her props, too, because she does such a great job, and was so great in that one scene [in Season 2],” he said.Kreisberg wasn’t the only fan of Anna Hopkins in the crew.  “All anyone could talk about after wrapping 408 was ‘Anna. Anna’s so great!’ We were literally on the mix stage, and our sound supervisor was going ‘Anna Hopkins came in for ADR! She’s wonderful!’ I don’t think I’ve seen an actor come in and be so beloved so quickly!” Marc Guggenheim raved.
Greg Berlanti praised the work of the show’s lead actor in the storyline. “It’s obviously a very emotional storyline, and it was nice to pay off, especially watching Stephen do a lot of the work that he did in the episode,” Berlanti added. “It was really exciting for all of us to see.”
Now, we see Oliver is keeping things a secret from Felicity… could this lead to trouble for the “Olicity” ‘ship? “It’s definitely going to come to a head in the middle of the season,” Wendy Mericle said. “I can’t tell you exactly how it’s going to happen, but obviously for the arc of Oliver and Felicity’s relationship this season, the fact that he is keeping this from her… true to what we’ve done on the show, if there’s a secret somewhere, it’s going to come out, and it’s going to have some serious consequences.”
“We’re really excited about how that’s going to change things, and it’s really going to raise the stakes and throw some wrenches into the works for their relationship, which so far this season has been pretty smooth sailing,” she continued. “True to form, we’re going to really mine that. There’ll be some fallout for both of them.”If you’ve just finished Arrow “Legends of Yesterday” and want to chat about it with other fans, come talk about it on our Arrow forum!