Arrowverse Stars Melissa Benoist and Grant Gustin Praise Stephen Amell for Helping Create a Legacy

There was always going to be an end for Arrow, but after so many seasons with the team, it can be hard to say goodbye. Both Supergirl‘s Melissa Benoist and Grant Gustin from The Flash bid The CW series that started it all goodbye this week with TV Guide. It’s hard to believe that the finale is on its way, but going into this season the writing was on the wall. Crisis on Infinite Earths only cemented that feeling of finality. But, on the way to all that world-ending action, the final season of Arrow offered some very entertaining meditations on the road to that point and harkened back to some of the best times with Oliver Queen. Even with all the happiness of reflection, it will take a while for the Arrowverse to truly move forward.

“Stephen started all of this,” Benoist began. “And the legacy he’s leaving is pretty incredible. You know, we almost have our own Justice League on television, and the universe is massive and he was always at the helm. So it’ll be different without him and an adjustment without him there and without all the Arrow people there.”

“Stephen’s always been so great to me, personally, and to just the world as a whole,” Gustin added. “He’s definitely been the leader of the Arrowverse, and I don’t want to have to take up that place. They’ll be missed.”

The Flash‘s Candice Patton talked about how much the Arrow crew means to the rest of The CW’s superhero outfit. They truly paved the way and things are definitely going to be weird without them.

“It’s really weird, I didn’t notice that until someone said it earlier. We’re the senior class now, it’s crazy,” Patton said. “You have to give credit to Arrow, they’re the ones who started this. This show, this cast, these producers. They laid the groundwork for what makes these shows successful and we followed the template. We did our own thing, but they really figured out, through trial and error, what makes a show last for eight seasons. We owe them a lot for giving us a pathway to be successful.”

Arrow consulting producer Marc Guggenheim previously addressed the question of how all those characters will live on in the Arrowverse once their show comes to a close.

“That’s a terrific question, and there’s always a chance.” Guggenheim responded. “Especially since this has now become this huge universe. We have all these different places we can go, different ways we can tell stories. And the thing I always – and I’ve been saying this for a few years now, because it’s been a universe for a few years now – whenever an actor leaves the show, I always say ‘It’s not goodbye, it’s see you later.’ Because we have all these different avenues available to us, between time travel and parallel universes and animated — you name it, we’ve got all these different avenues, which is a nice thing to be able to explore.”

A one-hour retrospective on Arrow called Hitting the Bullseye airs Tuesday January 28th at 8PM ET. The finale begins right after at 9PM on The CW.