The Flash: Stephen Amell Talks His Green Arrow Return, Hopes for the Lasting Legacy of the Arrowverse (Exclusive)

The Flash returned Wednesday night on The CW with what might be the most anticipated episode of the Arrowverse series' final season. This week's "It's My Party And I'll Die If I Want To" saw the return of Arrow star Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, giving fans one last team up between the hero and the Flash —as well as bringing Oliver and Diggle (David Ramsey) together one last time as well. The episode, directed by Danielle Panabaker, also contained a lot of callbacks to Arrow and earlier team ups while also offering some pretty big revelations as well. ComicBook.com sat down with Amell to talk about his return as Oliver Queen, what he specifically requested for the episode, and his hopes for the lasting legacy of the Arrowverse.

Warning: spoilers for this week's episode of The Flash beyond this point. 

Nicole Drum, ComicBook.com: A big part of the heart of the Arrowverse has always been the friendship between Oliver and Barry. As a fan personally, seeing the duo together one final time was emotionally meaningful. What was it like for you to come back as Oliver Queen in this final season of not just The Flash, but in the final part of the Arrowverse itself?

Stephen Amell: To me, it was an absolutely perfect sendoff. I got to do all the things that I wanted to do. Coming back as the character I got to have scenes with the people I wanted to have scenes with. And also go up there and see a lot of the people that I knew from Flash that work in the production, that all were very much just... Frankly, incredibly generous in terms of being thankful that I came back and that we got to put a bow on it in a nice way. I think we landed the plane nicely.

And this episode is super stacked. There's closure for a lot of things, such as finding out the Multiverse still exists. We also get to see Diggle and Oliver finally get to say that goodbye fans were hoping they'd get. Eric Wallace has previously said that there was something specific that you requested for this return. Was that Diggle and Ollie moment what you requested?

Well, I made a couple of requests. I was very, very particular and adamant that I wanted to be in the suit. That was one thing. I think that... Oh gosh, what was beyond that? I wanted to be in the suit. That was for sure. I told Eric how much I enjoyed the closing scene of one of our crossovers were Oliver and Barry are having a drink at a bar, and that ended up in the episode. And then I wanted to say something of significance. I wanted my character to say something of significance. And I think it's safe to guess that was the declaration that the multiverse in fact still exists or has been made anew.

I enjoyed that. I've been tracking the Multiverse since the beginning of the Arrowverse so it was delightful to find out we have another Earth designation. Thank you for that.

You're welcome.

In this episode, like you said, we first get Oliver back as Spectre and it connects to Crisis. It feels like we kind of got a coda for that event, but I was surprised in the best way to see you suit back up as Green Arrow. And we get that one last Flash/Arrow team up moment, but it was also a Spartan/Arrow moment as well. What was it like for Oliver, since his existence has been very different, to be Green Arrow once again? 

Yeah, well, I mean you did hear him say it. Not as much as I missed this. I think that Oliver, in a lot of ways, like me, I think was ready to be done at his journey. But you step away from it for a little bit and it's very clear. I mean, of course Oliver misses Diggle, misses Barry. He misses the interaction. He probably misses punching people in the face.

And he gets to punch Barry in the face at one point in the episode.

Yeah, he does. Which is always fun. It's not a very Oliver scene if Oliver doesn't pull a fast one on him.

There's just so much symmetry here. Like you mentioned that scene at the bar was beautiful. It also felt like Oliver was truly passing the torch in a way that we've kind of never really seen before. What did that moment mean for Oliver?

Well, look, I needed to pass the torch. I got a chance to do it in sort of a death scene. But coming back and seeing Barry and seeing what he's grown into, it's kind of like the final step of approval. No, no, no. You're the man. So go and do it. And then for us to bring back some dialogue from the Flash pilot too, about moving to the city like a guardian angel and giving people hope, I mean that was really special. I love dialogue callbacks, so that was really cool.

There are definitely some deep cuts in there. With the Arrowverse kind of officially ending with The Flash…. you guys literally changed not only superhero television but you kind of changed the television landscape writ large. I know Arrow was unlike anything we'd ever seen. It continues to be unlike anything we've ever seen. The Flash also has its own legacy. What is your hope for the lasting legacy of the Arrowverse?

I mean, honestly, we just worked really hard. I think this is going to come down to a lot of people looking at Greg Berlanti, and the way that he fostered this universe, and the way that he treats his actors. And I also don't think that you can say enough about the tremendous amount of faith that both Peter Roth, the WB and Mark Pedowitz, the CW had in our shows. And you look at the landscape of television right now, not everything is getting picked up every year. So, I just think that we had a genius at the head of the ship in Greg Berlanti and then really, really thoughtful, considerate executives at the network and the studio, and it just turned into a perfect storm.

So, what's the legacy? I'm glad that you still not seeing stuff on television like Arrow. Hopefully that's the legacy. I think that from our perspective, when I think about our show, I think about what we were able to pull off in the time that we had with the money that we had. I think that we did incredible things with incredibly high degrees of difficulty, and I will forever be proud of that.

The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.