Stephen Amell denies a rumor regarding how long Oliver Queen will be in prison at the start of Arrow season 7. Last season saw Oliver waging a war on two fronts. On one flank was Ricardo Diaz, a drug-dealing gang-leader with delusions of grandeur and dreams of establishing himself as the kingpin of Star City. On the other flank was Samandra Watson, an FBI Agent with a deep hatred of vigilantes, who was determined to prove that Oliver was the Green Arrow and send him to prison.
In the Arrow season 6 finale, Oliver struck a bargain with Agent Watson, securing her help in taking apart Diaz's criminal network and immunity from prosecution for the rest of the city's heroes, in exchange for Oliver's surrender and a guilty plea on all the charges brought against him, including him admitting to being the Green Arrow. The episode concluded with Oliver being imprisoned at the maximum security installation known as The Slab. It's unclear how long he will remain in prison, but it won't be for three episodes.
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A rumor spreading online suggested that Oliver would only be in prison for three episodes. That rumor was recently debunked by Amell on Twitter. All he said was, "False," indicating that at least three episodes is the incorrect number for how long he will be in prison at the start of Arrow season 7.
It is unclear, based on Amell's response, if Oliver Queen will be in prison for more or less than three episodes. Many fans had hoped that the Arrow season 7 synopsis indicated that the series was going to do its own take on Supermax - a canceled Green Arrow movie based around the idea of Oliver fighting for survival after being wrongly convicted and sent to a metahuman prison. This would require Oliver to have a lengthy stay in prison, taking up a good portion of the first half of the season, at the very least. Other fans are hoping for as short a stint in prison as possible, pointing to the general failure of a similar storyline in the fourth season of The Flash, where Barry Allen's wrongful imprisonment on murder charges brought the show's storyline to a screeching halt.
Fans on both sides of the issue have good points. While the idea of Oliver Queen struggling to survive in prison sounds good on paper, the concept could quickly grow tiresome if Green Arrow is stuck in jail while the greater storyline of the show continues on without him. By the same token, the series has drawn complaints in past seasons for resolving its end-of-the-season cliffhangers too quickly, such as when season 3 ended with Oliver retiring from vigilantism, only to be back in action in the first episode of season 4. Perhaps the season's first trailer will shed some more light on this matter.
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Arrow season 7 premieres on The CW on Monday, October 15.
Source: Stephen Amell