Major Character Exits Arrow As Series Regular

Spoilers ahead for tonight's episode of Arrow.

It's an announcement many Arrow fans have been expecting for a while now: Colton Haynes, who plays Roy Harper/Arsenal on the hit CW drama, will no longer be a series regular going forward, Buzzfeed reports.

The actor is presumably leaving to pursue other opportunities as a headlining star; he'll appear in this summer's San Andreas with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and has been the target of several pilot offers during the time he's been a supporting player on Arrow.

"When we made Colton's deal, he was coming off of Teen Wolf where he was beloved, and he had a lot of opportunities," executive produce Greg Berlanti said. "So we did a trial thing where we said, for his sake and ours, 'We'll just do a bunch of episodes and see if you like it and if you enjoy it.' And he did. Then pilot season came up that year and before another pilot could snatch him up, we made a two-year deal, so we always knew we were on a clock."

"It's going to be really challenging for Team Arrow," executiver producer Marc Guggeinheim said of rest of Season Three. "First the loss of Roy and there is more stuff coming for the remaining threesome of Oliver, Diggle [David Ramsey], and Felicity [Emily Bett Rickards] that is not going to get neatly resolved by the end of the year. We shot a scene last night where Diggle [David Ramsey] talks about the hurt feelings and broken trust. That will resonate not only through the remaining episodes of the season, but into Season Four."

Haynes' character departed today, faking his death in jail and being whisked off to start a new life. He'll appear in at least one more Season Three episode, though, and could potentially pop up here, on The Flash or the as-yet-untitled spinoff series featuring other characters from the DC Universe. When he does, though, it's unlikely he'll have more than an episode here or there.

"We're grateful that [Haynes], in the nascent stages of our show, really gave us the time and commitment to help get the show out there and get seen and talked about," Berlanti said. "He was such a wonderful element as a character and a person. It was super sad, but everybody kinda looked at each other and realized that he's at the start of, what I'm sure will be, an incredibly incredibly impressive career. It's great that he gets to go on and have that and we got to have him while we did."

Arrow returns next Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.