Arrow Showrunner On Last Night’s Impactful Finale (SPOILERS)

In an interview with TVLine, Arrow showrunner Marc Guggenheim spoke about last night’s season finale, which resulted in some big changes for the ArrowVerse. Keep in mind there are spoilers if you haven’t watched it yet. Here are highlights:

On the decision to kill off Quentin Lance: “Look, it’s always hard. Paul’s a wonderful actor and a wonderful human being. [Regarding] the decision to kill versus maim, this show has always been a show that has real consequences — even when we had the Lazarus Pit and and even with time travel and parallel Earths. Maiming always feels like a cop-out to me, especially on a show like this one. [Arrowverse executive producer] Greg Berlanti always says the show has a Game of Thrones element to it in that no one is ever really safe. And while I think while we could have maimed Lance and sent him off to live with Donna, like you said — and that was discussed — I don’t think it would have been true to the spirit of the show, which has never really done that as a general rule. But it was hard.”

On what’s next for Oliver now that he’s in prison: “This is the beauty part of me not showrunning anymore! No, I’m just kidding. There is a plan in place. We always try very hard never to take a leap without knowing how we’re going to stick the landing, so as much as I would love to joke, “OK guys, have fun, I’m out of here!,” there is a plan. We know exactly how things are going to work in prison, how things will resolve themselves…. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Oliver won’t remain in prison for the remainder of the series; that would be silly. He’ll get out at some point, and the circumstances under which that happens… there’s a really cool plan in place for. So, stay tuned!”

On if Felicity will be bitter about Oliver’s decision: “I wouldn’t say bitter; but I would say that Oliver is going to have some work to do. This was a momentous decision that affects not only her but their son, and at the end of the day he didn’t consult her. Oliver says in the finale, “There wasn’t enough time,” but if I were Felicity I would quibble with that. There were plenty of moments where Oliver was talking to people, saying hid good-byes…. Felicity I think would be well within her rights to say, “Why didn’t you take some of that screen time talking to me about it?” Obviously it will be up to Beth [Schwartz] and the writers to decide which way to go here, but my thinking about the reason he didn’t [consult with Felicity] was because he knew she would talk him out of it.”