Arrow producer Marc Guggenheim has revealed one idea for the series finale saw the Green Arrow inspiring Bruce Wayne to become Batman. Arrow premiered in 2012 and kicked off The CW's Arrowverse, which now includes The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman. The shows have teamed up several times in the past for annual crossovers, the most recent of which was Crisis on Infinite Earths. The five-part event brought in not only the Arrowverse series, but also Black Lightning, Titans, and even the DCEU's Flash, Ezra Miller. Unfortunately, Arrow hero Oliver Queen died in Crisis while saving the multiverse.
The crossover aired just before the Arrow series finale in January, when the show wrapped after eight seasons and 170 episodes. Throughout the course of the series, the Green Arrow helped lead many others to the hero path, including Earth-2 Laurel Lance/Black Siren, Roy Harper/Arsenal, and Dinah Drake/Black Canary. As Oliver died before Arrow's last episode, the series finale showed his sacrifice and subsequent timeline change causing crime to disappear in Star City. As a result, the Green Arrow is finally lauded as a hero. However, as vigilantes are no longer needed in town, Team Arrow decides to part ways at the end of the finale.
However, according to Arrow producer Marc Guggenheim, his "original conception" and "fantasy" for the end of the series was quite different at one point. Speaking with Fake Nerd Podcast, Guggenheim revealed it saw the Green Arrow's death inspiring Bruce Wayne to become Batman:
I kind of had a little bit of a fantasy that Oliver would die, and you'd end with some sort of news broadcast talking about his legacy and that would sort of become voice over, and then you would go to this rooftop in a whole other city and on the cuts a thug or some bad guy would come crashing through the frame, having been punched off screen. And this pair of black boots would come down right in front of him, and there'd be a flutter of a scalloped cape, and the voice over would say something along the lines of "Oliver Queen inspired a whole new generation of vigilantes." The implication of course being that he inspired Batman.
Guggenheim also elaborated on why that Arrow ending didn't come to fruition, explaining "That of course didn't happen for a variety of different reasons, the least of which is Batwoman came along. But that was my original conception."
Now in its first season, Batwoman is one of a couple new Arrowverse shows filling the void left behind by Oliver Queen. A Supergirl spinoff has reportedly already received a straight-to-series order. That show will follow Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) and Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch) as they raise their twin sons. There's also a possibility of several Arrow characters being back on The CW this fall, as its own spinoff series, Green Arrow and the Canaries, is still in play. That show aired a backdoor pilot as Arrow's second-to-last episode and would follow Oliver's daughter Mia and the canaries in future Star City. However, that series hasn't yet received a pickup order, and fans likely won't find out about its fate until May.
This Arrow finale idea is a good indicator of how shows change throughout their runs. It was several seasons before Arrow was even allowed to reference Batman, let alone have him onscreen the way they did in Crisis on Infinite Earths. It would have been a fun treat for fans to see Oliver inspiring such a DC legend. Even though it didn't end up happening, at least Arrow viewers know Oliver had an impact on many other vigilantes.
Source: Fake Nerd Podcast