It looks like one of Arrow‘s newest additions will be sticking around for the time being.
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Ben Lewis is officially joining the cast of the long-running The CW series for a season-long arc, according to Deadline. Lewis made his debut in this week’s Season 7 premiere, in which fans ultimately learned that he was playing the adult version of William Clayton (Jack Moore), the son of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell).
As fans will remember, the season premiere featured multiple flash-forwards of Lewis’ character traveling to Lian Yu, treading some of the same ground that Oliver did in the show’s early days. At the end of the episode, William revealed his identity to an older Roy Harper (Colton Haynes), who is on the island for some unknown reason.
Lewis’ filmography includes Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, The Handmaid’s Tale, Insecure, Designated Survivor, Suits, and Chasing Life.
To an extent, Arrow fans shouldn’t be surprised by the notion that Lewis will be involved in the rest of the season, especially with showrunner Beth Schwartz confirming that the flash-forwards aren’t going anywhere.
“We’re going to keep it all season and series,” Schwartz said during a recent press screening. “We didn’t know how long the show was going to go on for, so we always knew that after season 5, there wouldn’t be flashbacks. So, we had talked about flash-forwards years ago. Like, ‘is this what we’re going to do when there aren’t flashbacks?’”
“I think it opens up our world immensely,” Schwartz said. “For a seven season show, coming up with new stories that we haven’t done before is definitely a challenge. I think this is a really great way to tell some of these stories and also add a lot of mystery, because we can introduce something in the future and then you’re like, ‘How the hell did that happen?’ So in the present-day story, you’re going to really want to tune in to see all those details.”
Still, the notion that the older William’s arc will theoretically be wrapped up by the season’s end is certainly interesting.
Are you excited to see older William factor more into Arrow Season 7? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Arrow airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.
