Stephen Amell starred as Oliver Queen a.k.a Green Arrow in the CW series Arrow. The show spawned the Arrowverse, including shows such as The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and more. It went on for eight seasons, ending in 2019. The show crossed over with other shows in the Arrowverse and saw many prominent DC characters make an appearance.
While the show included popular characters such as Deathstroke, Black Canary, and the Monitor, the makers revealed that they never intended to introduce some of these characters so early into the show. Characters such as Deathstroke and Arsenal a.k.a Roy Harper appeared in season 1 of the show despite being planned for much later.
Stephen Amell’s Arrow Wanted to Introduce Deathstroke Much Later
Stephen Amell’s Arrow introduced many DC characters to the mainstream, such as Black Canary, Overwatch, and Mister Terrific, and even started the Arroweverse which would branch out to Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash. Many mainstream characters such as Deathstroke a.k.a Slade Wilson also made an appearance in the show.
According to producer Marc Guggenheim, many of these appearances were just supposed to be an Easter Egg before they leaned into it and introduced the characters early on in the show. In an interview with EW, Guggenheim mentioned that the team did not intend to bring in Wilson so early in the show and it was actually co-creator Geoff Johns’ idea.
Guggenheim mentioned that Johns suggested the idea to include a Deathstroke mask in the first episode of the series which later led them to introduce him in a future episode,
“David Nutter was on set [of the pilot], and he wanted basically a foreground element. He was like, ‘What can we stick here?’ and he had the idea of maybe something with an arrow through it. Geoff Johns happened to be on set and said, ‘Well, what if it’s like a mask, it’s half-black and half-orange, and it’s basically the Deathstroke mask?’ And we were like, ‘Oh, great Easter egg!’ because we were all about the Easter eggs back then.”
Manu Bennett played Slade Wilson in the show and he would go on to play the role till season 6 of the show.
Actor Colton Haynes Was Never Part Of The Plan In Arrow Season 1
While Deathstroke made his live-action appearance before the DCEU in the Arrowverse in season 1, another character was also introduced much earlier than planned in the series. According to producer Guggenheim, actor Colton Haynes who played Roy Harper a.k.a Arsenal in the show was introduced in season one of Arrow despite not being a part of the plan. He said to EW,
“We had no intention of introducing Roy Harper [Colton Haynes] in season 1, [but] we saw him in episode 15. The Huntress being as early as episode 7, the idea that we would introduce another superhero character? Never part of the original plan for season 1.”
Guggenheim mentioned that he learned from his experience working on the ABC show Eli Stone which was canceled after two seasons without a proper conclusion. He revealed that he did not want to save story ideas for a season that might never be made and hence decided to go all out with Arrow.
While Colton Haynes gained considerable fame for playing the role of Harper in the show, he would go on to exit from the franchise after season seven. He mentioned in his memoir (via E! News) that the reason why he chose to depart from his full-time role in the show was due to his depression and because he could not be around one of his cast mates. He did not reveal the name of the actor he could not work with.
Arrow is currently streaming on Netflix.
