Arrow To Hang Up Its Hood After Season 8

Arrow is planning its endgame.
Variety reports the series will wrap up with a 10-episode eighth and final season next year. The series was given an early renewal last month, but it seems the nature of that renewal was to bring the Arrowverse’s premiere series to a close. In a statement, executive producers Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Beth Schwartz said “This was a difficult decision to come to, but like every hard decision we’ve made for the past seven years, it was with the best interests of Arrow in mind.”
Additionally, they said, “We’re excited about crafting a conclusion that honors the show, its characters and its legacy and are grateful to all the writers, producers, actors, and — more importantly — the incredible crew that has sustained us and the show for over seven years.”
The show debuted in 2012, with fans of Smallville‘s Green Arrow (Justin Hartley) skeptical about a reboot of the character. It worked nonetheless and spawned an entire array of programs tied to its universe.
The seeds of the show’s conclusion have been planted throughout Season 7, starting with Oliver’s (Stephen Amell) arranging to save Kara (Melissa Benoist) and Barry (Grant Gustin) during the “Elseworlds” crossover event. The deal will apparently, as teased in this week’s episode, cost him his life in the very-near future. Maybe even during next fall’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover.
To be honest, the tank has been dry in regards to Arrow for sometime. While the characters are still fun to watch, the overall plots and villains have been lackluster, particularly Season 6 big bad Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo). Building toward a conclusion with the flash-forward story has given it a little more momentum this year. Nonetheless, it will be sad to see Arrow depart the airways sometime next year.