Arrow Co-Creator Marc Guggenheim Explained the Series Finale Title — And It’s Not What You Think

Taking to Twitter earlier this afternoon, Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim revealed that there was a hidden meaning to the series finale’s title that, apparently, almost everyone had missed (we know we did). Sharing a diagram of a bow, Guggenheim suggested to fans that there was more to the series finale title “Fadeout” than meets the eye — and sure enough, there was: the fadeout is the area on a longbow where the grip tapers into the risers and limbs of the bow. The archery puns have been fairly solid throughout Arrow, but to not only use this one but sit on it for a day and let everyone be surprised when it was revealed is pretty fun. You can see the tweet below.

After eight seasons of dark and violent nights, it seems Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) will find some version of peace in finale, if the final two words of the series finale are to be believed. Ahead of the start of production on “Fadeout,” the series finale, producer Marc Guggenheim shared the cover page to the episode yesterday, as well as a heavily-redacted final page of the script. Of the actual content in the script, only the words “Of possibility…” are visible — followed by a fade to black and the series’ end. Oliver Queen will have his hero’s ending, and the Arrowverse will go on without Stephen Amell.

This means that, with the planned Green Arrow and the Canaries spinoff getting a backdoor pilot (it’s shooting now) and “Crisis on Infinite Earths” concluded, Guggenheim and his fellow Arrowverse producers are nearing the end of what is almost certainly the longest and most exhausting run of episodes since the interconnected universe of DC Comics shows began.

Arrow returns 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 airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.