Warning: This article contains spoilers for Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The Arrowverse's Crisis on Infinite Earths has come to an end - but is Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow really dead? The last year has seen Oliver Queen haunted by the knowledge of his impending death. He struck a deal with the Monitor to spare the lives of Supergirl and the Flash, but was well aware that it would ultimately cost him everything.
However, Arrow season 8 promised that Green Arrow would have to become something else, and in the end he achieved that through his death. Oliver was transformed into the Spectre, a cosmic being who had the necessary power to survive the destruction of the Multiverse and assist the Paragons in undoing the Anti-Monitor's victory. Unfortunately, this required Oliver to sacrifice himself once again in order to light the spark and initiate the Big Bang at the dawn of time.
Death has always been something of a revolving door in the superhero genre, and Arrow has accepted that ever since its inception; most of the show's main heroes have been believed dead at one point or another, and a number of them have been resurrected through the use of Lazarus Pits. So is Green Arrow really gone for good?
Crisis On Infinite Earths Wants Viewers To Think Oliver Queen Is Really Dead
Crisis on Infinite Earths certainly wants viewers to believe that Oliver Queen is truly dead this time. It's lampshaded in an arc that saw Oliver's friends track down a Lazarus Pit on an alternate Earth and attempt to resurrect him; John Constantine called in a favor from Lucifer to take them to Purgatory in an attempt to find Oliver's soul. When they arrived, they were shocked to learn that Oliver had a different destiny, and they were forced to accept his transforming into the Spectre. Oliver himself embraced this new cosmic role believing it would be irreversible.
Furthermore, Oliver's final death - back at the dawn of time - was confirmed as the event the Monitor had foreseen. While the Monitor's knowledge was far from perfect - he didn't know that Oliver had to die twice, for example - he had consistently warned that Oliver would die in order to save the Multiverse. In the end, the Monitor's confused, rough-and-ready plan worked, purely because Oliver was willing to sacrifice his life and bring an end to his story.
The Multiverse Has Been Reborn - And Rewritten
While the Multiverse has been reborn, it has also been transformed. At least three of the different alternate Earths have been combined, meaning that all the CW's DC shows - Arrow, Supergirl, Batwoman, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Black Lightning - now take place on the same Earth. As a result, history has been rewritten, to the extent that Lex Luthor is now considered a celebrated hero of humanity, and has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Given the dramatic nature of these changes, it's entirely possible that Oliver Queen is still out there.
Crisis on Infinite Earths appears to foresee that idea, and attempts to debunk it by having Felicity conduct a global search and draw up a blank. The heroes all take that as a sign that Oliver really is gone, but in truth they're making a lot of assumptions there. A man like Oliver Queen would be quite able to conceal himself from even Felicity if he wanted to; indeed, he's done it before. What's more, it's also possible Oliver has wound up somewhere with no technology at all; history could even have repeated itself, meaning he could be back on Lian Yu. The empty seat at the new Hall of Justice is just begging to be filled by Oliver himself.
Oliver Queen Can Take Superman's Ending From Crisis On Infinite Earths
There is another possibility, one lifted straight from the comics. In the original comic book version of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Earth-2's Superman was forced to sacrifice himself in order to ensure the Anti-Monitor was defeated. Superman and his reality's Superboy were left stranded outside the Multiverse, unable to return. Fortunately for the two heroes, Earth-3's Lex Luthor came to the rescue, and transported them to a paradisical pocket dimension, where they would be safe from the antimatter waves. Lex also reunited Kal-L with Earth-2's Lois Lane, who he saved shortly before the rebirth of the universe. It was the ultimate reward for Kal-L, even if it did mean he would never be able to return.
The Arrow season 8 finale could conceivably reveal a similar fate for Oliver. Should Oliver have survived his apparent death at the dawn of time, he may well find that his transformation into the Spectre is irreversible, and that he can never return to his world. If that's the case, however, it's reasonable to assume he won't get to have his family with him in paradise, as Kal-L did; that wouldn't fit with the upcoming Canaries spinoff, which is confirmed to feature Oliver's grown-up daughter Mia Smoak in the year 2040. It wouldn't be quite such a "Happily Ever After" ending.
Will Oliver Queen Return?
The basic rule of the superhero genre is a simple one; don't believe anyone is gone for good if there isn't a body. That means viewers would be wise to assume that Oliver Queen could yet return, but it's unlikely to be as a series regular, and it also probably won't happen anytime soon. There's a simple out-of-universe reason for that; Stephen Amell seems to believe that Oliver Queen's story is over, and he's ready to move on as an actor. In fact, Amell originally wanted to leave after Arrow season 7, because he felt that was a satisfying conclusion to Oliver's arc. The proposed plot of Arrow season 8 intrigued him, and he decided to stick around for just one more season.
Related: Every Earth Confirmed In The Arrowverse
Amell's commitment to the character of Oliver Queen means that the showrunners will face something of a challenge should they want to bring Green Arrow back. Deaths and resurrections have devolved to the point where they're just gimmicks in the comics, but Amell won't be agreeing to return if he feels there's the slightest risk of damaging Oliver's overarching narrative arc. For now, at least, it does indeed seem that Green Arrow has left the Arrowverse.