Don’t Worry, Colton Haynes Is Still Playing Earth-1’s Roy Harper On Arrow

To date, Arrow has brought us its share of memorable characters such as Manu Bennett’s Deathstroke, Caity Lotz’s Sara Lance and, don’t forget, even Grant Gustin got his start there as Barry Allen! Yep, there’s a very good reason why it spawned what we now refer to as “the Arrowverse.”

But whether one’s putting together a short or long list of those to have made an impression on viewers, you’d be remiss if not to include Roy Harper. Played by fan favorite Colton Haynes, this young man debuted all the way back in season 1 before blossoming into the hero known as Arsenal. Of course, he did bounce after season 3, but he resurfaced for some guest shots here and there in the time since.

So, even in the midst of the excitement following confirmation on Colton returning as a series regular for season 7, theories regarding him not being “our Roy” couldn’t stop swirling. In other words, there are those who believe he could be from an alternate universe, much like the recently redeemed Black Siren originating from Earth-2.

Shooting down this notion is that of executive producer and outgoing co-showrunner Marc Guggenheim, who offered the following to Entertainment Weekly:

“I can tell you it’s absolutely our Earth’s Roy. Colton is coming back as our one Roy Harper. We have a cool plan for Roy — now I should really get into the habit of saying the writers have a cool plan for Roy — but I think it’s premature to talk about that. I’ll let Beth [Schwartz] address that.”

As you may have noticed, he brought up Beth Schwartz, who’ll be taking the wheel from him and Wendy Mericle beginning with season 7. Actually, Guggenheim will remain on in the role of executive consultant, so he’ll still have somewhat of a hand in what’s going on.

And though I’m glad to hear we’ll be seeing Earth-1’s Roy when the story resumes, I, for one, think it’d be cool to see a doppelganger of his in a one-off episode at some point. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a villain per se, as it’d be rather intriguing to meet a version of Roy who’s inherited the mantle of Green Arrow from Oliver Queen, wouldn’t you say?