ARROW at TCA: Live-Blog

ARROW will end its run during the 2019-2020 season, and the cast and creative team is coming to TCA to talk about what’s in store. Follow along for live updates…

11:57 AM: The panel starts with a note that Katie Cassidy isn’t here because she’s prepping to direct her first episode.

11:58 AM: “Please, God, I hope so,” Marc Guggenheim says about whether they’ve crafted an ending that will satisfy fans. “We’d much rather prefer to go out on a high note.”

11:59 AM: “We pick up a week later,” Beth Schwartz says of when the season premiere starts. Stephen Amell jokes it’s as long as his hair is between seasons, so about six weeks.

12:00 PM “It’s been really emotional,” Amell says. “Every episode this year feels like we’re trying to put a button on certain parts of the show.”

“This year is fundamentally different,” he continues. “The episodes are events. The show as we constructed it ended as Emily left.”

12:03 PM: “As we worked through the first season, we started thinking about it more and more as an ensemble,” Guggenheim says. He says the process was a “slow build,” as organic as possible. He notes they did it on a more accelerated pace than anticipated, though.

12:04 PM: How can there be a happy ending if Oliver might die? “I think when I read about this online, they’re thinking about things in a very binary way: things will either be X or Y. I think we have Z planned.”

12:05 PM: “I do a ton [of stunts],” Amell says. He did a big sequence last week.

12:06 PM: “We like to bring him back every season,” Schwartz says of Colin Donnell. “We have a lot of guest coming back…the whole season is like our greatest hits. We’re tying up stories you may have seen in season 3 or 2.”

12:07 PM: “David Nutter is the only one who had the foreshadowing it would be a hit,” David Ramsey says of memorable moments. Amell says his favorite episode was “Seeing Red,” where Moira dies.

12:10 PM: “I can’t get back in the wrestling ring—I risk divorce,” Amell jokes. He fractured his hip last go-round, and admits he had to call up the production team and admit he was an idiot and would still be available for the episode he needed to film.

12:11 PM: The crossover will be hour 8 of the series. “Ever since we started doing Crisis, it was how many different corners of the DC universe can we touch,” Guggenheim says. They want to get as many things, CW and not, involved. Ramsey is a “huge fan” of BLACK LIGHTNING and is excited to potentially work with them.

12:13 PM: “Stuff like that comes up all the time,” Guggenheim says of potentially having ARROW characters live on in other shows.

12:14 PM: “The space has been closed; Diggle is always on Oliver’s side,” Ramsey says of Oliver and Diggle. “The relationship gets even tighter…some of that reconciliation has happened.”

12:15 PM: Amell jokes he is taking the salmon ladder home after the series ends.

12:16 PM: “I’m fascinated by directing, but it’s more interesting to me to check in on Katie who had day 1 of her directing on Friday,” Amell says of whether he’ll direct.

12:18 PM: Ramsey says he found out a few years ago that his role on BLUE BLOODS is why he was hired as Diggle. But he doesn’t know if he’ll return.

12:19 PM: “ARROW has afforded me the opportunity to sift through materials and find what will help me be a better actor,” Ramsey says.

12:20 PM: “Working with these guys…this doesn’t happen,” Ramsey says. “[This franchise] doesn’t happen. And just the crossover. Growing up, I remember BIONIC WOMAN and SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN crossover and waiting for it to happen.”

“For me, I can’t really drill it down when it comes to David,” Amell says. “I remember a Friday, where we had 12, 13 pages of dialogue…David and I made a decision and were like, ‘Okay, let’s get this done.’ It was days like that that gave us the opportunity to go as big as we did.”

ARROW, Season Premiere, Tuesday, October 15, 9/8c, The CW

RELATED:

• The CW Planning Tribute Specials for ARROW, SUPERNATURAL
• ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’: The CW Sets Air Dates, Adds BLACK LIGHTNING Characters and Bruce Wayne
• ARROW: Stephen Amell and Marc Guggenheim on the Show’s Very Final Scene
• ARROW: Charlie Barnett Added as Series Regular for Final Season
• The CW Teases Upcoming Seasons of ARROW, SUPERNATURAL, LEGACIES, and More
• ARROW: Will Emily Bett Rickards Return for Season 8?
• ARROW to End with Season 8
• ARROW: The CW Boss Mark Pedowitz on Episode 150’s Homage

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