'Arrow' Renewed for Season 7

The CW has renewed Arrow for its seventh season, ensuring that the series will survive whatever Ricardo Diaz and his posse of villains can throw at it this year.

The move was telegraphed recently when network president Mark Pedowitz said that he expected all of The CW's current DC superhero shows (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow) to be renewed for the 2018-2019 season.

"At the moment, it's a little too soon," Pedowitz said. "We're noted for announcing at winter TCA that we're picking up shows, we just weren't ready to do that yet. A couple more weeks [and] we'll probably get around to it. I'm pretty confident we'll see them all back."

Before that, executive producer Marc Guggenheim, who oversees Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, had expressed confidence that those two would come back.

The CW was the only broadcast network to hold steady in the ratings rather than declining between 2016 and 2017, largely on the strength of its comic book offerings. With Supernatural and Riverdale holding steady or improving while The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow had single-digit ratings drops, the reliable audience that tunes in for DC's superhero shows helped make the network arguably the most consistent on TV last year.

The network is rolling out three new superhero products: the just-launched Freedom Fighters: The Ray and Constantine animated series on the web-based CW Seed, and Black Lightning.

The sixth season tends to be a time when contracts end and/or have to be renegotiated, so there may be some changes to the makeup of the show from season 7 on.

Last week's episode saw Willa Holland, one of the only series regulars to have been around since the pilot, leave the series as Thea Queen left town with her old flame, Roy Harper (Colton Haynes). Still, Pedowitz had indicated that at least some of the cast had signed on for potential future seasons already.

Arrow's seven seasons brings it closer to equaling the accomplishment of Smallville, The CW's first big superhero success, which ran for ten seasons.

Arrow airs on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.