Barring some kind of unexpected misdirect in the storytelling, Stephen Amell’s version of Green Arrow — the hero who launched an interconnected DC Universe of TV shows on The CW — is almost certainly “dead” as of today. In an Instagram post in the early hours of the morning Eastern time or late last night on the west coast where it was posted, Amell revealed that he had wrapped production on “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” the upcoming crossover event in which Oliver Queen is expected to sacrifice himself to save the multiverse. The end of “Crisis,” then, probably Amell is finished playing Oliver Queen in a linear narrative and any future appearances will be in flashback.
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With a backdoor pilot for Green Arrow and the Canaries, featuring Katherine McNamara as the lead, shooting right now, there will be only one more episode of Arrow to feature Amell, and if “Crisis” unfolds the way it is expected to, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the finale is everyone’s big farewell to Oliver.
Amell revealed that he had wrapped on the crossover in a short video posted to his Instagram feed, wearing what he describes as “Benjamin Button in the third act” makeup. You can check it out below.
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For those who can’t see it, Amell spends most of the video thanking the members of the other shows that Arrow got to hang out with during “Crisis,” including Cress Williams, who will appear in the event as Black Lightning even though his show takes place on a different Earth and will not have a “Crisis” episode.
“I’m tired. Crossover done,” Amell ends the video. “I think that it’s probably the coolest comic book thing that’s ever been on TV, and that makes my heart happy.”
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” has loomed over the Arrowverse for years. The series premiere of The Flash featured an allusion to the hero disappearing amid red skies in the year 2024. During the original comics event, red skies were a sign of doom to come to a world during the Crisis. At the end of last season, a couple of things happened: The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), who had appeared in “Elseworlds,” reappeared and revealed that Oliver Queen was destined to die in the Crisis…and the future newspaper at STAR Labs rolled back the expected date of the Crisis from 2024 to 2019.
In the comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths centered on a battle between the combined superheroes (and even some villains) of the DC multiverse and an immortal, cosmic threat known as the Anti-Monitor. Like The Monitor, the Anti-Monitor will be played by LaMonica Garrett in the Arrowverse. As the Anti-Monitor destroys realities, he replaces their positive matter energy with antimatter, growing his own power and sphere of influence. He was eventually stopped by the sacrifices of several heroes, including The Flash and Supergirl, as well as the merging of multiple universes to save reality by becoming a single, unified timeline. Fans have long wondered whether the events of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” might bring Supergirl and even Black Lightning to Earth-1, where the rest of the series take place. The crossover will also feature guest appearances by Tom Welling as Clark Kent, Erica Durance as Lois Lane, John Wesley Shipp as the Flash of Earth-90, Johnathon Schaech as Jonah Hex, Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne, and Ashley Scott as The Huntress.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” kicks off on Sunday, December 8 on Supergirl, runs through a Monday episode of Batwoman and that Tuesday’s episode of The Flash. That will be the midseason cliffhanger, as the shows go on hiatus for the holidays and return on January 14 to finish out the event with the midseason premiere of Arrow and a “special episode” of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which launches as a midseason series this year and so will not have an episode on the air before the Crisis.
