In the final moments of tonight’s season 6 premiere of Arrow, Oliver Queen was outed as the Green Arrow.
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Just before the end of the episode, Felicity Smoak called Oliver on the phone, telling him to get to a TV and check out the news.
On the news? A photo of Oliver, his hood down, his face revealed as that of the Green Arrow.
While there is no confirmation as to where the image came from, a likely scenario seems to be that he was photographed by one of Curtis’s T-spheres, which was stolen from the armory in the lair.
Revealing Oliver’s identity has been something that showrunners and series star Stephen Amell have talked about for years, although they have always indicated they hoped it would be on Oliver’s terms, giving the example of Tony Stark’s “I am Iron Man” moment at the end of Iron Man.
While many fans thought a mayor would have trouble being a superhero by night, Amell disagreed back when Oliver first ran for office.
“I think that the whole idea of running for mayor — intrinsic in it is that we’re going to separate the Oliver Queen and Green Arrow character because Oliver Queen as a man representing the city can do things that the Green Arrow can’t,” Amell said in 2015. “The Green Arrow can take down the city’s criminals but he can’t rally a crowd with a speech. Which is one of the things that I’ve really enjoyed doing this year. I’ve had more speeches this year — both good and bad — than I’ve probably had in the first three seasons combined. So, no, we definitely want to keep those two things separate.”
While there may be no connection between his being spotted and recognized out of costume and the fact that he is the mayor, a high public profile certainly can’t hurt that kind of thing.
Arrow airs on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
