Stephen Amell Reveals Why He Came Back for Arrow Season 8

Only two episodes remain for The CW's Arrow and as the end nears, people are looking back on the series that launched the Arrowverse as well and that includes series star Stephen Amell. The actor made an appearance on Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast, opening up a bit about his time on Arrow, the feeling of being completely burnt out, and more. Amell also reveals one of the major reasons he opted to come back for one more season of Arrow despite feeling the story come to a natural end in Season 7 and it turns out he was made a financial offer that he simply couldn't refuse.

"You know there was a lot of issues going back for Season 8 for me, just because I thought 7 was the logical conclusion," Amell said in the podcast. "I was done. I was ready to move on and then I got the proverbial offer that I couldn't refuse."

That offer he couldn't refuse was an increased episodic fee if he went ahead and agreed to 32 episodes to account for Seasons 7 and 8 rather than just the 22 of Season 7. Amell explained that when he considered things, it was just a good decision to go forward with a Season 8 from a financial perspective.

"They say 'alright, you want to be done at Season 7, well you're going to have to shoot 22 episodes with us... which is July through April so are you really telling us that you want to 22 at price X and finish in April and not do 32 at this price and be done in October? That doesn't make any sense.' If you're renegotiating, they change your episodic fee and I looked at it and they literally put me in a position... nobody put me in a position. It would have been fiscally irresponsible for me to say no. Just fiscally irresponsible, so... and I loved the sh-t out of Season 8. I had a blast, but I was there for the money, right, more so than I had ever... love and money, but certainly money. I don't regret the choice."

This isn't the first time that Amell has been open about wanting Arrow to have ended with Season 7. Last summer during a Facebook Live, Amell sat down to chat with fans and answer their questions while taking a short break from filming the series' final season. He explained at that time that he thought things should have ended with Season 7, though at that time he noted he had changed his mind upon hearing the plans for Season 8.

"I think that we've had our running time," Amell said. "That's what I thought when I talked with Greg Berlanti in Season 6. I felt like we had done our thing. I thought ultimately theoretically Season 7 should've ended things. But to come back and do 10 episodes ... what they've done with this final season is really cool. It's like nothing you guys have ever seen. Every episode that comes out, it's like 'Wait a minute, what? It's happening what and where and how? Ok, that's cool. Let's do it!'"

Arrow producer Marc Guggenheim also spoke a bit about the decision to head into Season 8 last summer as well, with Guggenheim touching on both the story and financial aspect of that final season.

"Once you start staring down the barrel of a Season 8 these conversations just quite frankly start to happen organically, and you know Stephen [Amell] was at the end of his deal and it's like 'what are we going to do? How long are we going to do this for?' And for my money, I felt it was time, you know, and I think Greg [Berlanti] felt that way, I think Stephen felt that way," Guggenheim said. "I think we all sort of collectively came to the same conclusion which is let's go out on a high note. People are still talking about the show, which is hard in its eighth season of any show. People are still talking about it and then it becomes production budgetary things that really gets you into the tall grass but for me I felt like let's end the show when we can still produce the show that we have all come to know and love and not try to change the show to make it work when it otherwise can't."

Ultimately, the final season of Arrow has clearly come across as a major labor of love for Amell. The actor shared at various points throughout the production of Season 8 his thoughts and feelings about the many final moments he as an actor experienced as well as those for his character. It's also turned into something that has deeply resonated with fans thanks in part to the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover which saw Oliver go out as the hero he had grown into being which is something that will make the final episode of Arrow, next week's "Fadeout", all the more poignant.

What do you think about Amell's comments? Let us know below.

Arrow airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW. The penultimate episode, "Green Arrow and The Canaries" airs January 21 while the series finale, "Fadeout", airs January 28.