Stephen Amell Compares Arrow’s Finale to Game of Thrones

Arrow will air its final ten episodes later this year, and it sounds like the farewell will hopefully strike a better chord than other recent series finales. ComicBook.com was on hand for Arrow‘s panel at last weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, where the topic of whether or not the show will have a “happy ending” – compared to the controversial final season of Game of Thrones – was discussed. As series star Stephen Amell revealed, he might not actually be the person best suited to weigh in on that.

“I’m the wrong person to answer this question because I loved the last season of Game of Thrones,” Amell revealed. “If you all hate our finale, I’ll know we have done a good job.”

Amell went on to reassure that, even though it’s been confirmed that Oliver Queen will die in the upcoming “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover, the show as a whole will end on a relatively-happy note.

“No, [producer] Marc [Guggenheim] and I were talking earlier.” Amell explained. “Arrow has a happy ending. You know that I tell you guys what happens on the show and I tell you in plain sight and you just don’t hear me.”

This topic of comparing the season to Game of Thrones‘ farwell ended up being a bit of a recurring theme at SDCC, with Guggenheim going into detail about that in an interview with us.

“The good news is unlike Game of Thrones or unlike Lost, were not burdened with having to answer a question,” Guggenheim told ComicBook.com last weekend. “We’re not burdened with ‘who’s going to sit on the Iron Throne?’ or “what was the island?’ so we get to do, I think, a much more character-based ending. So, at the same time, the complication for us is that we also have “Crisis” and I think a lot of the stuff that was always in my head in terms of how to end the show we’re now actually going to end up doing in the crossover instead so it’s like now what does the series finale become? But, you know, we’ve got plans.”

“I’m really excited about it.” Guggenheim continued. “The goal is to make it satisfying for the fans, but the good news for us is we don’t have the challenges that Lost or Game of Thrones had,” he continued. We also don’t have the ratings, so there’s that, too. But I feel the pain of Damon, Benioff, and Weiss. It’s hard. It’s a hard thing to do in a way that satisfies everyone. I also think, because I’ve been thinking how does one end a series, there’s what the initial reaction to something is and then there’s how it stands the test of time and those two things are not always the same.”

How do you hope Arrow‘s final season compares to Game of Thrones? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Arrow‘s final season will begin Tuesday, October 15th, at 9/8c on The CW.