So many dead characters are returning to Arrow for the show’s eighth and final season, but how? In March, it was confirmed that Arrow, the series that started the Arrowverse, would end with a ten-episode eighth season. After season 7’s future storyline dropped numerous hints, the season 7 finale confirmed Oliver (Stephen Amell)’s death and set up the story for season 8. It was revealed that Oliver’s next mission is to save the multiverse, with his journey tied directly to the upcoming Arrowverse crossover event, “Crisis on Infinite Earths”.
If the season 7 finale wasn’t any indication, casting announcements have made it abundantly clear that Arrow season 8 is taking the series in a completely different direction. Over the course of the season, Oliver will encounter his best friend Tommy (Colin Donnell), off-and-on enemy Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), the season 5 villain Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra), Oliver’s season 1 mentor, Yao Fei (Byron Mann), and his mother, Moira (Susanna Thompson).
What these characters have in common is that they’re all dead. While it’s possible that a few could appear just in flashbacks, the Arrow season 8 trailer has made it obvious that for some of them, this will offer a completely new story. There are at least three different ways that would make sense of the returning cast members and characters.
Oliver Queen Is Traveling Through Time
Arrow executive producer Beth Schwartz has stated that Arrow season 8 will take place on Earth-1, which pokes holes in most theories about what Oliver’s final mission will entail. Nevertheless, there’s one theory that still holds water. Oliver could be traveling back in time. Being a being of great power, it seems logical that the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) would have the means to send Oliver through the timestream, which he might do if he thought it was necessary.
Thanks to The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, time travel is not a new concept to the Arrowverse and certainly something that feels like a plausible explanation for the dead characters appearing in Arrow season 8. Such a storyline would allow Oliver to revisit key moments in his past. And it does seem like time-travel will at least play a role in the crossover, since Ryan Choi (Osric Chau) will be on-hand. Choi is a different incarnation of the Atom, and a character who was confirmed to exist in the future in season 5 of The Flash.
The time travel theory lines up with the official synopsis for the Arrow season 8 premiere. In the episode, Oliver “returns to Starling City where he encounters familiar faces”. While on the surface, this may sound like Oliver isn’t actually going anywhere out of the ordinary, one particular phrase stands out: “Starling City.” Arrow has been based there from the beginning, but in season 4, it was renamed “Star City” to align with the comics. So why is Arrow using the show’s original name again? The synopsis could be the show’s cryptic way of saying that Oliver is heading into the past.
Oliver Queen Is On Earth-2
It’s possible that the show takes place primarily on Earth-1, but a good bit of it is set on Earth-2, the home of Black Siren (Katie Cassidy-Rogers), who migrated from Earth-2 to Earth-1 in The Flash season 2. Earth-2’s Starling City doesn’t share the recent history of Earth-1, so the events depicted so far in Arrow likely haven’t occurred on Earth-2, especially since most of them are tied in some way to Oliver Queen’s Green Arrow, a persona that never existed on Earth-2.
It was established in previous seasons that the Earth-2 Oliver Queen never made it back from the shipwreck that launched the show’s story. Instead, it was Robert Queen who ended up being the costumed protector of Earth-2’s Starling City , not Oliver. Not much is known about the Earth-2 counterparts of the returning season 8 characters like Tommy, Malcolm, and Yao Fei. It could be that none of them died in Earth-2’s timeline. Also, season 8’s Tommy doesn’t seem like the same character that fans are familiar with from season 1, which means that he may not be the Earth-1 Tommy.
Season 8 taking place partially on Earth-2 could provide another reason for why Earth-2 Laurel is still on the show. Following the conclusion of Laurel’s redemptive arc and transformation into the new Black Canary, Laurel decided to return to Earth-2. She came back briefly in the finale to help Oliver defeat the Ninth Circle, but her stay should only have been temporary. She could be back on Earth-2 by the time season 8 picks up. If so, Black Canary could serve as sort of a guide for Oliver as he navigates through Earth-2.
Crisis On Infinite Earths Is Affecting The Multiverse
The endgame for Oliver’s mission in season 8 is “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, so there could be a link between the returning dead characters and “Crisis”. It’s possible that one of the side-effects of the event is that the universe is now out of flux. Whatever is threatening the multiverse could be causing timelines to converge. If this is the case, it would cause characters from different Earths to overlap. This would allow Oliver to meet different versions of people from his past without traveling through the timestream or leaving Earth-1.
It was said in the trailer that “history is repeating itself”. This sounds like something that might happen if the universe is out of sync with itself. The universe being out of flux presents a very clear threat to the multiverse, and it could explain how “Crisis On Infinite Earths” is supposed to impact the whole of Arrow season 8, as well as the overarching plot of The Flash season 6. The convergence of timelines could threaten the fabric of all reality, and potentially result in the collapse of the multiverse. How and why the Monitor expects Oliver, a non-super-powered archer, to deal with such a situation, isn’t so clear.
More: Every Arrowverse Crossover Ranked (Ahead Of Crisis On Infinite Earths)
