This season’s Arrow is soon drawing to a close with the Season 5 finale, so it’s time to take stock of exactly where Arrow is at the end of its five-year run and where it might be going. In particular, which characters now on Arrow will be coming back next year in Season 6?
Obviously, we know that Ollie/Green Arrow will be coming back – or we wouldn’t have a show worth watching. It’s pretty clear from the last episode that Felicity and Ollie will be re-engaging in Ollicity again – for good or ill – so it’s likely Felicity will be coming back as well.
In fact, most or all of the current team will probably be back for Season 6. As reported by ScreenRant , the actors who play Wild Dog and the new Black Canary – Rick Gonzalez and Juliana Harkavy – have already signed up for season 6.
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In addition, we know that evil Laurel Lance from Earth 2 – Black Siren – will also be coming back next year. Whether this will be as a villain – that’s what she’s been so far – or as a redeemed semi-hero is still to be determined. We might get a clue about where she stands by how things fall out in the season finale – where she is supposedly on Prometheus’ side.
All of the rest of the usual cast of characters, from Captain Lance to Mister Terrific will probably be returning as well. Plus, it was recently revealed by the show’s producer that Ollie’s sister Thea will probably never be removed from the show entirely, and certainly will never be killed off. The writers don’t want to get rid of Oliver’s last link to his family.
Someone we know won’t be returning is John Barrowman’s Malcolm Merlyn. While this character has appeared in both Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow this year, Barrowman announced recently that he is not signed up for any of The CW DC shows next year. That’s a shame, since it seems like one of the old guards of the Arrow universe is leaving.
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Of course, that doesn’t mean he won’t come back the following year. He’s a fairly busy actor, and it’s perfectly possible that any commitments he has next year won’t interfere with him coming back for Season 7 of Arrow .
Clearly, some people aren’t going to be coming back in season 6 of Arrow because they’re going to be dead. Yes, there is a tendency in all of The CW superhero shows – and particularly on the Arrow – to rather spectacularly bring people back from the dead, but these are usually good guys rather than villains.
When it comes to dead villains leaving the show, it’s almost certain that Prometheus is not going to survive this season. While Ollie may have been okay with putting Captain Boomerang or even Deathstroke in the Argus prison on Lian Yu, it’s highly unlikely that he’s going to allow Prometheus to live after kidnapping and threatening his son – which is what is suggested at the end of the last episode.
And along with Prometheus’s demise, there’s a very good chance that the arch traitor Artemis is also about to depart this vale of tears. She’s apparently going to be included as a part of Prometheus’s army during the big showdown with the Green Arrow and is own new recruits – including Deathstroke and Captain Boomerang. And although Black Siren is apparently going to survive this encounter, it’s highly improbable that Artemis will make it through as well.
While not part of the regular Arrow crew, we also need to consider the epic confrontation that’s apparently taking place between Talia al Ghul and her sister Nyssa. There’s a good chance that one of these two isn’t going to survive their battle, and it’s a reasonable supposition that the loser will be Nyssa. This is because Arrow could be setting up Talia as next season’s big bad.
[Featured Image by The CW]