‘Arrow’s Emily Bett Rickards on Hopes for Felicity in Season 7

The CW’s Arrow changed forever in last week’s Season Six finale and that means major challenges in the future for the show’s characters. And series star Emily Bett Rickards has some clear ideas of what she would like to see — and not see — for Felicity in Season Seven.

In Season Six, Rickards’ Felicity Smoak experienced huge life events. She and Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) finally got married which meant that Felicity also became a parent, stepping up as stepmother to Oliver’s son, William. It was a turn that had many Arrow fans hoping that the next step would be for Oliver and Felicity to have a baby themselves, but as Rickards told TV Guide, there’s more that she’d like to see Felicity take on.

“I don’t know if I would be interested in exploring that storyline right now with Felicity,” Rickards said. “I feel like she deserves a little something more than that, and I don’t want that to be taken the wrong way. I’d just be interested in seeing her, I don’t know, like, deal with a villain face-to-face for a consistent number of episodes?”

An “Olicity” baby is something that has come up before. At Heroes and Villains Fan Fest in Nashville a few weeks ago members of the Arrow cast were asked what impact Felicity having a baby would have on the show and while they largely joked about how childcare would be an issue and how the team might have to do more child-proofing, Oliver and Felicity starting a family seems like a natural next step. However, considering that Oliver is in a supermax prison while the villain he sacrificed himself to stop remains free — and has his Longbow Hunters to help him make a comeback run for Star City — Rickards’ comment that it might not be the right time for Felicity and Oliver to start a family rings pretty true. After all, Diaz is likely not happy to have been thwarted — and Rickards has previously said that it will be a challenge to keep Felicity safe from him now.

“We’ve seen how strong and intelligent and ferocious [Diaz] can be; I don’t think he stops,” Rickards told Entertainment Weekly. “In terms of [Felicity] safe, we can do our best, but I don’t think she’s going to have much luck.”

Whatever is next for Felicity — and Oliver — the only thing certain is that the show’s changes aren’t being undone anytime soon. Outgoing showrunner Marc Guggenheim said in a previous interview that the Season Six finale “fundamentally” changed things and fans will just have to wait for Season Seven to see how big those changes play out to be.

Arrow will return on Mondays at 9/8c after Legends of Tomorrow this fall on The CW.

Are you excited to see what’s next for Felicity on Arrow? Let us know in the comments!