Arrow: How Oliver Queen Can Return In The Arrowverse's Future

3 years ago

Arrow: How Oliver Queen Can Return In The Arrowverse's Future

Stephen Amell's comments regarding an Arrow revival have fueled speculations he might return, but how could Oliver Queen return after Arrow's finale?

An off-hand comment by Stephen Amell on his social media has some fans considering the possibility of an Arrow revival at some point in the not too distant future. This begs the question of just how Oliver Queen could be reintroduced into the Arrowverse after his noble sacrifice during the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event.

The speculation began shortly after the announcement that Showtime would be bringing back the series Dexter, with Michael C. Hall returning to the title role some seven years after the show ended. The news was met with enthusiasm from Dexter fans; many of whom found the show's original finale to be unsatisfying. It was also considered to be a minor miracle, given that Hall had been adamant about never playing Dexter Morgan again after eight seasons.

Hall's past comments prompted Arrow star Stephen Amell to share the news of the Dexter revival on his Twitter account, declaring "This is why you never say never." Ironically, Amell was similarly vocal about being done with the Arrowverse earlier this year and wishing to move on to other projects that would allow him to spend more time with his wife and daughter. As such, it's unlikely he's already considering a return to his most famous role, particularly when he has a starring role in the upcoming wrestling drama Heels. Despite this, it prompts the question of how Oliver Queen could hypothetically be brought back into the Arrowverse, should Amell be agreeable to a return someday.

An Arrow Revival

The possibility of an Arrow revival on the same scale as the Dexter revival seems unlikely. Ignoring that it hasn't been a year since Arrow came to a close, there is a reason why fans have been demanding the return of Dexter, even if only in the form of a movie or limited series. To put it mildly, most of the Dexter fandom hated the show's finale, which has gone down in history as one of the worst series finales ever due to how it failed to provide any sense of closure to its ensemble. By contrast, the final episode of Arrow was generally well-received and brought the story of most of its cast to a definitive close with little chance of a continuation.

Ironically, most of those characters whose stories were left with an open ending in Arrow's finale were purposely being set up for continuing roles elsewhere in the Arrowverse. Perhaps the best example of this was John Diggle, Oliver Queen's former bodyguard and right-hand man, who ended Arrow preparing to move to Metropolis; the setting of the upcoming Superman and Lois series. The Arrow finale showed Diggle discovering a strange glowing green object after a meteor crashed near him and his moving van. This, coupled with earlier hints dropped throughout Arrow's run, fueled speculation that Diggle might show up in Superman and Lois as a Green Lantern or that David Ramsey would go on to be part of the cast of the upcoming HBO Max Green Lantern series.

Another point of consideration is Green Arrow and the Canaries, the Arrow spin-off series set up by Arrow's penultimate episode. Set in 2040, the show was meant to focus on Oliver Queen's daughter Mia (Katherine McNamara) and her taking up her father's mantle with the assistance of the time-displaced Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) and Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy). The pilot set up several mysteries, such as how Dinah Drake wound up in 2040 with seemingly all record of her existence in 2020 being erased and what new villain with knowledge of the original 2040 timeline seemed determined to destroy Star City and blame Mia Queen for the disaster. Unfortunately, despite the pilot episode receiving high ratings, The CW has yet to move forward on starting production on Green Arrow and the Canaries. As such, it seems unlikely the network would consider an Arrow revival at this time, when there's apparently reason to doubt the success of an Arrow spin-off.

Flashbacks/Visions

A far easier way of bringing Stephen Amell back as Oliver Queen is through flashback sequences and visions. The first five seasons of Arrow were famous for their flashbacks, which showed how Oliver Queen slowly gained the skills needed to be a hero over the course of his five years away from Starling City. Green Arrow and the Canaries could make use of similar scenes, with Laurel and Dinah thinking back to adventures they had with Mia's father that had never been featured in earlier episodes. Oliver could also appear to any of the Arrowverse's many magic-using or psychic characters, offering advice from beyond the grave. The only problem with this idea is that it offers too much complication for too little gain and would not be the best possible use of Oliver Queen as a character, given everything he sacrificed to earn his place in paradise during Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Oliver Queen Of Stargirl's Earth-2

One interesting possibility lies in the series Stargirl, where Stephen Amell could play a different take on Oliver Queen. It was revealed in the episode "Brainwave" that Green Arrow and Speedy were part of an Earth-2 superhero team called the Seven Soldiers of Victory, along with Sylvester Pemberton and Pat Dugan back when they were the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripsey. While this Green Arrow and Speedy were never identified as Oliver Queen and Roy Harper, they wore the classic Golden Age costumes associated with those versions of Green Arrow and Speedy. As such, it would be a fun Easter egg to have Stephen Amell play that version of Green Arrow as well.

A Green Arrow From The Past Joins The Legends Of Tomorrow

Another possibility is that the Legends of Tomorrow could recruit a version of Oliver Queen who hadn't died yet. The time-traveling series has played around with the idea of recruiting heroes from the past before, with Amaya "Vixen" Jiwe having been part of the team for two years before returning to her proper place in 1940s Zambesi. The biggest challenge here would be in coming up with a good reason for Oliver Queen to agree to a long-term trip with the Legends, as Oliver was notorious for hating dealing with things outside his comfort zone, like time travel and aliens. While he put his discomfort aside to help maverick historian Nate Heywood figure out what happened to the Legends in the Legends of Tomorrow season 2 premiere, Oliver couldn't get back to Star City fast enough once the Waverider was confirmed to be operational and Mick Rory was there to take over the search. Still, watching Stephen Amell play Oliver as a fish out of water could be an amusing change of pace.

Oliver Queen Gets Resurrected (In A Crossover Event)

If Oliver Queen were to come back from the dead for an extended period or an actual Arrow revival at some point in the future, it would almost certainly have to be as part of a major crossover event. Simply speaking, Oliver Queen's sacrifice as the Spectre to give birth to a new multiverse was too big a moment to diminish by bringing him back for anything less than an equally large disaster. There is a precedent in the comics, however, as Oliver Queen once walked out of the afterlife to save the life of his son, Connor Hawke, when nobody else was there to save the day. It's easy to see the Arrowverse version of Green Arrow making a similar return as part of a future Green Arrow and the Canaries storyline, given everything Oliver Queen gave up to ensure his daughter's future.