What Does That Huge ‘Arrow’ Twist Mean for the Future?

There was a major twist in the last moments of tonight’s episode of Arrow that could have a lasting impact on not only Team Arrow but Star City and even the future of the Arrowverse itself.

Major spoilers for the Arrow episode ‘Tribute’, below. Read on only if you really want to know!

After realizing that balancing a double life as both the Green Arrow and Mayor of Star City, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) realized that he could no longer be on the streets as Green Arrow but that the city still needed a hero. This lead him to ask Diggle to suit up as Green Arrow in his stead, a request with somewhat bad timing as Diggle previously confided in Dinah that he’s dealing with degenerative nerve damage due to an injury sustained on Lian Yu.

Oliver passing the mantle of Green Arrow on to Diggle is a huge twist and has a lot of potentially negative outcomes, both in the shorter term and possibly for the more distant future as well — some of which we may have already seen.

Read on for what Green Arrow Diggle might mean for the future.

Connor Hawke

Arrow fans will remember that Diggle and Lyla originally had a daughter, little Sara. That’s why the events of the Legends of Tomorrow‘s sixth episode ‘Star City 2046’ seemed unlikely. You see, in that episode the Legends end up in Star City circa 2046 and discover a non-Oliver Queen Green Arrow calling himself Connor Hawke. As the episode unfolded it was revealed that Connor Hawke was actually John Diggle, Jr. His father had been killed and the young man blamed himself for it so much that he no longer felt he could claim his own name. He had picked up the Green Mantle after Oliver had presumably died.

When the episode first aired few thought too much of it because, well, Diggle had a daughter, not a son. But then Barry created the Flashpoint timeline and when the dust settled from that debacle, baby John replaced baby Sara. Now that Diggle is heading into the field — and with a serious injury that has been shown to compromise his abilities — the circumstances are right for the events of 2046 to become reality.

Baby John not enough for you? Here’s another tidbit from the same Legends episode. In ‘Star City 2046’ it’s revealed that Felicity had her own tech business, Smoak Technologies. In tonight’s Arrow, Felicity and Curtis decide to join forces and start their own technology company, possibly foreshadowing Smoak Tech.

John and Lyla’s Relationship

The last we saw of Diggle and Lyla the couple had some relationship challenges and Diggle donning the hood to become Green Arrow isn’t likely to help the situation. The couple clashed last season about their approaches to their work, with Lyla leading ARGUS and making some choices that Diggle and Team Arrow didn’t always agree with. Now that Diggle is the Green Arrow that complicated professional relationship will be a strain on the personal one.

And the Diggle/Lyla relationship is one that actor David Ramsey chatted about with ComicBook.com’s Russ Burlingame at San Diego Comic-Con 2017. Specifically, Ramsey said that the unresolved issues between Diggle and Lyla would be explored this season.

“Diggle absolutely has some unresolved issues with Lyla,” Ramsey said. “We’re going to explore that. Listen, he’s a vigilante married to the leader of ARGUS who has her fingers on the pulse of the Suicide Squad. That’s just good drama if you really want to go into it. That’s a six-episode arc by itself. And also just in terms of how they see justice. Ya know there’s a philosophy that you have to have to be the next Amanda Waller which Lyla Michaels is, and Diggle doesn’t share that, and that’s the 800-pound gorilla in the room in terms of their relationship, so we’re going to get into that.”

Crisis on Earth-X

However, whatever lasting impact Green Arrow Diggle may have on the Arrowverse, we do know that his actual time under the hood won’t last that long. By the time the crossover “Crisis on Earth-X” takes place in November, Oliver is back in the suit.

In “Crisis on Earth-X” the Arrowverse heroes will have to face off against their Nazi-inspired counterparts from Earth-X, who apparently will show up and cause chaos at the much-anticipated wedding of Barry Allen and Iris West. While the general plot doesn’t sound like it puts Oliver back in the suit, Arrow star Stephen Amell gave fans a little look behind the scenes at the making of the crossover this week. The actor posted a photo of himself in full Green Arrow gear having a little downtime with a fully-suited up Flash (Grant Gustin) on the set of the crossover. With Oliver in the suit, it would seem that Diggle is back to being Spartan and what fallout waits in the future from his brief time as Green Arrow remains to be seen.

Before You Go

Arrow airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.

[Embed id=30490]Arrow (TVShow: arrow)[/Embed]