The ninth and final season of The Flash is set to premiere next month, and the series’ final episodes will see Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) return to the Arrowverse one last time.
According to Deadline, Amell—who played Oliver Queen (a.k.a. the titular Arrow) for eight seasons on the CW’s Arrow—will be making an appearance with Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen (a.k.a. the Flash). The final episodes of the relatively short ninth season will also include cameos from David Ramsey (John Diggle a.k.a. Spartan), Keiynan Lonsdale (Wally West a.k.a. Kid Flash), and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Ramsey Rosso a.k.a. Bloodwork).
The Flash along with Superman & Lois are the two series in the Arrowverse—the many DC shows created by Greg Berlanti that take place within the same universe—that are still standing at the CW. With The Flash officially over after this upcoming season, things also don’t bode well for Superman & Lois, although another DC show, Gotham Knights, is set to have its series premiere sometime this year.
Given the wind-down of the Arrowverse, having Oliver back one more time has extra resonance for fans.
“As soon as our final season was announced, we knew we wanted Stephen to come back and reprise his iconic role as Oliver Queen,” executive producer Eric Wallace told Deadline. “After all, it was Oliver who originally launched Barry Allen (played by Grant Gustin) on his heroic path. That’s why everyone on Team Flash felt so strongly that it was important to create a full-circle moment with Oliver’s return in the final season of The Flash. The result is an epic-yet-emotional episode we hope Arrowverse fans will enjoy. It’s all to say ‘thank you’ to everyone for watching and supporting our show throughout nine wonderful years. We absolutely cannot wait for everyone to see Grant and Stephen saving the world together again. And yes, there will be thrills, chills and tears.”
The appearance of Oliver Queen one more time is also interesting because (spoilers!) the character died at the end of Arrow’s run. Death is often a temporary thing in comic book stories, however. We can see what Oliver and Barry get up to in their final team-up when the final season of The Flash premieres on February 8, 2023 on the CW.
