‘Arrow’ Showrunner Teases Adult William’s Relationship With Oliver in Season 7

The seventh season of Arrow has already given fans quite a few surprises, and one might reveal itself in some interesting ways as the season goes along.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Arrow showrunner Beth Schwartz previewed what’s in store for the older William Clayton (Ben Lewis), who can be seen in flash-forwards throughout Season 7. While William’s main role appears to be becoming a mentee of Roy Harper (Colton Haynes), the relationship he has with his father Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) will also factor into things.

“Last year we spent a lot of time with Oliver as a father, and those stories were extremely dynamic,” Schwartz explained. “Trying to figure out what it’s like for a child to have a father who is Oliver Queen has been endless with the amount of stories we can come up with. How that affects a small child with all the trauma he’s been through, it’s interesting to see how William turns out when he’s an adult.”

As fans saw in tonight’s episode, William was essentially left by Oliver and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) when he was younger, only to be given a hosen by his stepmother with coordinates that led to Lian Yu. This led William and Roy to find Oliver’s bow and arrow buried on the island, with a mysterious note hidden inside that motivated the pair to head to Star City.

So, where will things go from there? Could we see William potentially reconnect with his father, depending on where exactly these flash-forwards fall in the Arrowverse’s timeline? Apparently, Arrow will definitely take the time to find out.

“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.”

Arrow airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.