Arrow EP Says The Flash Forwards Are Here To Stay

During its first five seasons, Arrow relied on the flashback element in order to fully flesh out the time Oliver Queen spent away from Star(ling) City, while sometimes tying into whatever was going on in the present. But after season 5 concluded, it became obvious this storytelling method would no longer be utilized.

Well, actually, we did see some flashbacks during season 6, but those were of the standard variety. In other words, they were included when appropriate, such as when the writers needed to expand upon the history shared between Slade Wilson and his son.

Now, in season 7, the producers have opted to do what I theorized would happen for the past few years, and that’s implementing the concept of flash forwards. In a nutshell, we’ve begun some sort of journey showing Oliver’s son, William, venturing to Lian Yu and running into a reclusive Roy Harper.

As it turns out, we’ll have to get used to this because new showrunner Beth Schwartz recently told Entertainment Weekly that, yes, the flash forwards are here to stay:

“We’re going to keep it all season and series. We didn’t know how long the show was going to go on for, so we always knew that after season 5, there wouldn’t be flashbacks. So, we had talked about flash-forwards years ago. Like, ‘Is this what we’re going to do when there aren’t flashbacks?’”

Soon afterward, Schwartz touted how this’ll afford her and her colleagues much in the way of creative freedom:

“I think it opens up our world immensely. For a seven-season show, coming up with new stories that we haven’t done before is definitely a challenge. I think this is a really great way to tell some of these stories and also add a lot of mystery, because we can introduce something in the future and then you’re like, ‘How the hell did that happen?’ So in the present-day story, you’re going to really want to tune in to see all those details.”

Additionally, it should be noted that Schwartz couldn’t confirm or deny if Roy Harper will be showing up in flash fowards only, but she did say other familiar characters will appear in the future sequences. Either way, the currently unraveling thread no doubt has something to do with the mysterious new Emerald Archer.

Arrow airs on Monday nights on The CW.