The CW's Arrow star Stephen Amell confirms Emily Bett Rickards will return as Felicity Smoak for the series finale after exiting in the season 7 finale. Rickards joined the DC TV show in season 1 as the lovably awkward tech genius Felicity Smoak, and became an integral part of the original Team Arrow - which included Oliver Queen (Amell) and John Diggle (David Ramsey). She became the Green Arrow's "girl in the chair," directing him on missions from inside their headquarters. Over the years, Felicity and Oliver also developed a romantic relationship, eventually getting married.
However, it was announced last year that Rickards would exit Arrow in the season 7 finale, which partially lead to the decision to bring the show to an end. Now, Arrow season 8 is currently filming, with production on the series' finale starting this week. In order to prevent the news from leaking via another source, Amell took it upon himself to reveal the major character return.
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On Twitter, Amell announced Rickards' return as Felicity for the Arrow series finale, writing, "Welcome back Emily," and used a GIF of the actress in her DC TV role. Yesterday, showrunner Beth Schwartz confirmed filming had begun on the Arrow series finale, but Rickards' return is the first significant news about the episode. See his post below.
Although fans may be most looking forward to the Arrowverse Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover this fall, this season will also mark the end of Arrow. So far, Arrow season 8 has set up Crisis and begun tying up loose ends for the series before in concludes. For instance, Arrow season 8 may address the Green Lantern theory about Ramsey's John. Further, a number of major Arrow characters are expected to return for the shortened season, and now Rickards' Felicity will be counted among them. Certainly, considering how integral Felicity was not only to Arrow as a whole, but Oliver's story, it makes sense to bring her back.
However, while Arrow is ending in season 8, the Arrowverse continues on, and there's even a spinoff in the works that will focus on Oliver and Felicity's daughter, Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara) and the Black Canaries Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) and Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy). The spinoff filmed a backdoor pilot that will be included in Arrow season 8. Based on the filming schedule, it will be the second to last episode of the season. So Arrow is looking to have an extremely busy final season, wrapping up storylines from its initial seven seasons, participating in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, then setting up a spinoff - all before the Arrow series finale.
Hopefully that allows Arrow the opportunity to give its main characters a proper sendoff. Now with Rickards set to return, it appears the Arrow series finale could do just that.
Arrow season 8 airs Tuesday nights at 9pm ET on The CW.
Source: Stephen Amell/Twitter