Stephen Amell Only Has One More Episode of Arrow to Film

Stephen Amell took to Twitter today to share with fans that he has just one more episode of Arrow to film, now that the Arrow episode of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" has concluded production. The tweet, which says that there are eight episodes down and one to go, continues a trend that Amell started at the beginning of the season, referring to Arrow's final season -- or at least his part in it -- as only nine episode. Since the season has a ten-episode order, fans immediately assumed that Amell might not appear in one of the episodes, perhaps because Oliver Queen dies in "Crisis on Infinite Earths."

Then, an announcement came that Arrow would be developing a potential spinoff centered on Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara) and the Canaries (Juliana Harkavy and Katie Cassidy) -- something that would be teased via a "backdoor pilot" on Arrow. It seems most likely that such an episode would be a good candidate for the one Oliver does not appear in.

What that suggests, practically speaking, is that it seems likely either the penultimate episode -- typically the one named after a Bruce Springsteen song -- or the finale. But since this is the final season, the notion of giving the finale over to the backdoor pilot for a new series that may or may not go seems incredibly unlikely, suggesting that the ninth episode is likely the backdoor pilot for what appears to be titled Green Arrow and the Canaries.

8 down.

1 to go.#Arrow

— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) October 21, 2019

A spinoff series is not guaranteed, but a backdoor pilot for the Canaries-centric show will be built into Arrow's final season. The backdoor pilot was announced back in September. Before that, in August, Guggenheim teased that some of the characters from Arrow might have a future on The CW after the show's upcoming series finale.

"We're always talking about it," Guggenheim explained. "Like, those conversations are always being had. There is nothing that, you know, has gone so far down the road that we've, you know -- I wouldn't certainly not going to announce it here. But all the showrunners talk, and stuff like that comes up all the time.

"Right now, honestly, like, I think, you know, as far as Beth and the other showrunners of the shows, everyone is focused on launching their seasons, getting their season premieres finished, getting ready for the crossover. "Everything sort of post-Arrow's life, you know, we're going to have those conversations, but further down the road."

Arrow recently returned to The CW this fall for its eighth and final season, a ten-episode run that will bring the story of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards, who exited the series at the end of last season), John Diggle (David Ramsey), and the rest of Team Arrow to a close (unless, of course, there is a spinoff planned).

The series' end will coincide with The CW's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" mega-event, which will run for five episodes over December 2019 and January 2020, featuring episodes from Arrow, The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and Batwoman. That seems particularly meaningful since in Arrow's season seven finale, The Monitor arrived to tell Oliver and Felicity that Oliver would need to join him — and that he would not survive the experience of helping The Monitor defend the multiverse in the Crisis.

Season eight of Arrow will premiere tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.