Arrow Producer Shares How They Concealed Tommy's Season 1 Death With Fake Script Pages

One of the most heartbreaking moments in all of Arrow's eight seasons was the death of Tommy [...]

By Nicole Drum

One of the most heartbreaking moments in all of Arrow's eight seasons was the death of Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) in the Season 1 finale. After a serious falling out between the best friends after Oliver reveals his identity as The Hood to him, the pair reconcile as Tommy lies dying having been gravely injured trying to save Laurel in the Undertaking. Tommy's death is something that would continue to haunt Oliver for years, but the was also a twist for show's first season finale that series co-creator Marc Guggenheim revealed recently they actually published fake script pages to keep under wraps.

Guggenheim, who has been sharing script pages and other behind-the-scenes gems from Arrow on social media during the coronavirus pandemic, took to Twitter on Saturday with the fake script pages the show used to keep Tommy's death under wraps.

"When we (spoiler alert) killed off Tommy Merlyn at the end of Season 1, we published fake script pages to keep the secret under wraps. Here are those pages," he wrote.

At first glance, the fake script is fairly similar to what actually happened on the series, with Oliver coming upon a gravely injured Tommy and desperately trying to save him. However, instead of the pair reconciling before Tommy dies from his injuries, things take a much more dramatic turn. Tommy, enraged at Oliver's reveal that he killed Tommy's father, Malcolm Merlyn, pulls himself up from the rebar he's impaled on and vows to kill Oliver.

While these pages were never the direction Arrow was going, it would definitely have been interesting to see Tommy and Oliver as full-on enemies in the show's second season. And the show did give fans a slight taste of what that kind of dynamic might have looked like during the "Crisis on Earth-X" crossover where the Arrowverse's heroes encountered Earth-X's Nazi version of Tommy Merlyn, operating under the codename Prometheus.

The fake script pages aren't the only thing that Guggenheim has shared with fans on Twitter in terms of differences between page to screen, either. He also shared the page from the opening scene of the season one finale that revealed a slightly different flashback to Oliver and his father's time in the lifeboat after the sinking of the Queen's Gambit.

"This was the original scripted opening for Arrow's first season finale," Guggenheim wrote. "We ended up cutting the material for time, but I'd use the same idea eight years later for the start of the second act of the series finale."

All eight seasons of Arrow is now streaming on Netflix.

What do you think about the fake script pages used to keep Tommy's death a secret? Let us know in the comments below.

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