The Flash ‘s final season just got a shot of O.G. energy. The CW has confirmed that Arrow icon Stephen Amell is set to strap on the quiver again as Oliver Queen for The Flash Episode 909.
Congratulations to Team Flash for nine incredible seasons. But most importantly.. thank ALL OF YOU for your undying support for this universe,” Ramsey wrote Friday night on Instagram, alongside a BTS photo of him, Amell, Grant Gustin and Keiyan Lonsdale, suited up as Spartan, Green Arrow, The Flash and Kid Flash (see it above). “None of this is possible without you! Enjoy the mashup you had no idea you needed! #TheFlashFinalSeason #ArrowLives!”
“As soon as our final season was announced, we knew we wanted Stephen to come back and reprise his iconic role as Oliver Queen.” states showrunner Eric Wallace of recruiting the Heels headliner. “After all, it was Oliver who originally launched Barry Allen on his heroic path. That’s why everyone on Team Flash felt so strongly that it was important to create a full-circle moment with Oliver’s return in the final season of The Flash.
“The result is an epic-yet-emotional episode we hope Arrowverse fans will enjoy. It’s all to say ‘thank you’ to everyone for watching and supporting our show throughout nine wonderful years. We absolutely cannot wait for everyone to see Grant and Stephen saving the world together again. And yes, there will be thrills, chills, and tears,” Wallace’s statement concludes.
Not long after the news broke that he would be putting in an encore for The Flash‘s own farewell season, Stephen Amell hit the emotional bull’s-eye with his first response.
“Of course I’m coming back,” the Arrowverse vet shared on Twitter, alongside a GIF of his Oliver Queen hugging superfriend Barry Allen
As previously reported, Amell’s Arrow co-star David Ramsey (John Diggle), along with Flash vets Keiynan Lonsdale (Wally West), and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Ramsey Rosso) are also on tap for the hour. In addition, December brought the news that Supergirl‘s Nicole Maines was bringing her Dreamer/Nia Nal for a storyline with Iris (Candice Patton) and it was announced back in October that former Batwoman standout Javicia Leslie would be appearing as the Bat-Flash hybrid villain Red Death.
How was Amell’s encore facilitated? Does The Flash showrunner Eric Wallace make that phone call, or does it come from longtime Arrowverse architect Greg Berlanti?
“It’s a two-pronged answer,” Wallace shared with TVLine on Friday. “I called up Greg and said, ‘I have a crazy idea. What if Oliver Queen came back….,’ and I pitched the story. He was like, ‘I love it, let me call Stephen.’ So he called Stephen, then called me back: ‘Stephen loves it! Talk to him, pitch him the idea.’
“So I got on the phone with Stephen — and this is all happening within a span of 18 hours, mind you — and I walked him through it,” Wallace continued. “He said, ‘I love it. But can we do this extra thing…?’”
Amell proceeded to pitch a storyline add-on, to which Wallace said, “‘Let’s do that! That’s fantastic.’ And the call ended with [Amell saying], ‘I’m in. Let’s make this happen.’ It happened that fast.”
As for how the very dead Oliver Queen manages to come back for the episode, Wallace was mum on specifics, though he did maintain, “We don’t change what has happened in the eight seasons of Arrow.” Rather, “we honor all of that.”
And the end result of this unexpected yet super-apropos reunion between Barry Allen (played by Grant Gustin) and Oliver?
“There won’t be a dry eye in the house at the end of that episode,” Wallace avowed. “It’s extremely emotional.”
Danielle Panabaker Talks Directing Stephen Amell’s Return
“I feel incredibly grateful that that was the script and the episode that I got to direct and I’m flattered that everyone believed in me and thought that I could do this episode because it was quite ambitious and I really wanted to pay homage to Arrow and the characters that Stephen and David played and those are some of my favorite moments in the episode,” Panabaker tells TV Insider.
“Truly when The Flash started, they always had this idea that a Flash episode would include heart, humor, and spectacle. And to me, Episode 9 is an excellent example of that because there’s heart in unexpected places and surprising reunions and there’s a lot of humor,” she continues. “I think part of the success of the crossovers and this Arrowverse has been the chemistry with some of the actors, Grant [Gustin] and Stephen included, and their chemistry together on screen is delightful. So you get humor in different ways there.”
As for the “spectacle” part, she teases “some of the biggest stunt work I think we’ve ever done on the show” in an episode she’s very proud of and excited for people to watch.
While she couldn’t share anything story-wise, “I was delighted, surprised, thrilled with Stephen’s performance in the episode. We were so lucky to have him back and deliver such a stellar performance,” Panabaker says. “It really felt like such a classic Flash episode — heart, humor, spectacle — and I don’t think fans will be disappointed in any element of that episode.”
So when did the call come in?
I wanna say the call came in sometime in, like maybe August or September? They said basically, you know, “The pitch has come in for you to appear in the ninth episode of the season.” And I immediately assumed that the ninth episode was the finale and that if I’d be back, it would be for the series finale.
But when I spoke to Grant, he was like, “No, actually it’s just kind of a standalone episode that revolves around a birthday party for Barry and Oliver comes back.” And I was like, Okay, well, that’s interesting. So I just said, “Well, I would love to chat with [showrunner] Eric Wallace,” because it ultimately came down to the story. Like, I wanted it to be a fun story. When I chatted with him, it was like, yeah, we’re set. I’m in.
Yeah, if you’re coming back it has to be for an important reason. And it feels like this also allowed you to kind of settle some things that were left unfinished with Arrow.
I would agree with that.
And I will say, having been on this ride since your Day One, when we first see Oliver’s bow again in the episode, it hit…
Oh, that’s nice.
How was it for you, revisiting the world your show created?
Oh, it was really, really special. You know, there were a lot of people working on Flash that had been a part of Arrow either when we had finished or just through the years. So, going back and seeing everybody was really special.
And revisiting the costume?
They still made me go into a fitting! [Laughs] I’m like, “Guys, come on!” But, no, it was…I just have to say, overall, that Eric Wallace was just such a collaborative person here. And when it came to the suit, he was like, “Well, which one do you want to wear?” And I was just like, “Well, um, I don’t know. The Season 8 one?” And he goes, “Yeah, sure. That makes sense. Let’s do that!” [Laughs]
There’s a big moment in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, which viewers of every Arrowverse show will recognize.
How many times have you shot in front of that place?! I’m trying to think.… Action [scenes] and otherwise, I’d say at least a dozen times. [Laughs]
Now Grant…I mean, you really did get to watch this guy grow up and now here you are, helping bring his show to a close.
Yeah, 100 percent. You know, seeing him and seeing how he’s grown…he’s giving his daughter a big hug when he’s shooting his last scene and all of that. I think they did a really good job with some of the dialogue in this episode; they were a little tongue-in-cheek and a little bit of wink-wink with some of the dialogue without it seeming cheesy. I don’t know if you noticed, but there is a segment that is all just verbatim from The Flash pilot.
Oh, I caught that, for sure!
Yeah, I thought that was really neat. And my whole thing with Eric was, “Okay, if we’re gonna come back, let’s come back and let’s play the hits,” you know? Let’s give the people what they want. I think that everyone is really going to enjoy it. It’s also nice to just remind people that, yeah, I can play this character.
It’s so cool to see you onscreen again, not just with Grant, but your Arrow partner David Ramsey.
It was all [great] until about two in the morning. Then it was like, “Oh God.” [Laughs] I always talk about “getting your set legs,” and I did not have them. I hadn’t really been on a set since July! So it took me a little bit of time. But, you know, honestly, Damian, we were at the Art Gallery, it was raining, it was late. It was just all the things that you want [shooting this show]. I don’t know if it would have been as satisfying on a green screen at two o’clock in the afternoon.
And again, I just can’t speak highly enough of Eric. A couple of the ideas that I pitched actually got in the show. I don’t know if it was going to be there before, but my favorite scene [from a past Barry-Oliver moment] is how we get to end this episode, and I just thought that that was really neat.
While Oliver assists Barry in his battle against Bloodwork, he also gets to tie up some loose ends from the Arrow finale.
It felt like a nice bit of closure. I think we ended at the right time, but playing him again made me feel as though, you know, I’m probably not done forever. But the break was nice. It was really nice.
And this also gave you a chance, I feel, to kind of play a version of Oliver that we never got to see evolve.
Yeah. I’ve only seen the episode one time, but it was nice to see a version of him that had what felt like a calmness, a patience. [There is] stuff that he never would have done before. And that was really special. I’m very thankful to the people who wrote the episode. I think a couple of them were very big Arrow fans, so I just want to thank them for picking up the character in such a cool spot.
So…you’d suit up again?
There’s always that idea of doing something like a limited series where we could do some things that you couldn’t necessarily do on network TV. Lord knows there’s no unexamined story — we did 170 episodes — but it would be very interesting to see a harder version of the character.
And what is up with Heels? Have they given you any idea about Season 2?
Yes. I’m not really allowed to share anything, but…I would anticipate a summer release.
Well, if they do a summer release, there’s a huge possibility they’ll drag you back to Comic-Con?
I could also try to drag myself back to WWE. That would be the idea. That’s kind of the idea that I’m kicking around at the moment.
Is your body all healed up now?
I’m totally healed, yeah! It’s really funny. I hurt my back during the first season of Heels. But the rehab after hurting it actually made it better. [Laughs]
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Source: TV Insider / TV Line
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