After eight years of fan speculation and more than a year of explicit teases, Arrow star David Ramsey had promise fans that they would get closure on the question of whether his character, John Diggle, would ever become the Green Lantern known as John Stewart during tonight’s series finale for the long-running superhero drama. Fans have spent the days since he said it wondering just what we might learn, what we might see, and whether it might have anything to do with the planned Green Lantern series coming to HBO Max in the coming months. And while the last question is decidedly not answered, the first two we can break down for you.
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The development that fans will be talking about for weeks has little to do with the series’ actual plot. John Diggle’s wife Lyla Michaels, director of ARGUS, takes a promotion to Metropolis, and the pair are seen in the final moments of Arrow preparing to move.
Spoilers ahead for the series finale of Arrow.
In the final moments of the series, John Diggle narrates a speech about Oliver’s growth, and the way he has inspired the people around him. During the course of the speech, he says that the last eight years have shown that the universe is bigger than anybody ever imagined. And just then, a green meteorite speeds across the sky.
“It was something that the fans sort of put on David’s radar, and David really embraced it,” Guggenheim told ComicBook.com. “And we love David. And obviously I have great affection for the Green Lantern character, and the Green Lantern franchise. But for sure, this was something that the fans manifested into existence.”
What they manifested into existence? The meteorite crashes to Earth in front of Diggle, sending him flying backwards into the moving truck. When he recovers himself, he stands, and walks to the crater, where he finds a small ring box. He opens it and, while you don’t get to see the ring itself, Diggle’s face is bathed in a green light.
Of course, setting John (a former soldier and bodyguard who became Oliver’s first partner in vigilante action) up for a future beyond the finale makes sense. Besides the fact that he will be appearing on The Flash next week, he is married to the director of ARGUS, the Arrowverse‘s most prevalent clandestine government organization. Ramsey has also suggested that there may be a tease regarding Diggle’s future as a Green Lantern in the finale. The idea, which started as something that fans had come up with because he was a Black former Marine named John (like Green Lantern John Stewart), was an idea that Ramsey has always seemed to love.
“You are absolutely going to get your answers,” Ramsey said recently. “And well-deserved answers. We’ve been talking about this for years, and I think everyone by series’ end will be very happy.”
Arrow airs its series finale tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, following a one-hour retrospective series titled Hitting the Bullseye, which will feature interviews that reflect on the series’ history and legacy.
