Stephen Amell has revealed he was very keen on making sure Oliver shows he has learned his lessons from everything he has been through in the upcoming season of Arrow. It has been a pretty eventful five years for the character. He has suffered major losses and wins along the way. He’s also faced various threats not only to Starling City but to his own family and circle of friends, too. And Amell wants all those experiences to somehow impact his on-screen character’s actions and decisions moving forward.


Coming into Arrow season 6, little is known what the specific narrative the show will tread. But it is expected to first and foremost resolve the cliffhanger left during season 5 finale where Oliver saw Lian Yu explode with most of Team Arrow still on the island. While there was no definite indication of any casualties, the horror ensued by the incident is expected to cause ripple effects through the series moving forward. And just like every situation that the hero has ever been in, Amell wants Oliver to draw some life lessons from it.

Appearing at FanExpo Canada, which was covered by YouTube channel FTWvsWTF, over the weekend, Amell admitted that while crafting Arrow season 6’s storylines, he would often put himself in the shoes of viewers and try to anticipate what else they want to see more from the series:

“The thing I ask myself whenever I’m reading a script this year and it comes down to an Oliver-based issue is, ‘is he handling this like someone who has learned lessons along the way? If he’s not, then we change it because if he hasn’t taken away stuff from everything that has happened in the last five years, including and especially what happened at the end of season 5, then if I were a viewer, I would be like ‘Alright, enough with this guy.’”

The vigilante’s story has been going on now for five season, and a pivotal piece of his development came to a close last season, so it is only fitting that fans would see some progress in his characterization moving forward. Further, it would be great for the show to finally address Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and Oliver’s “won’t or will they” romantic relationship instead of dancing around it. Season 5’s finale somehow teased that the two may be finally starting to warm up to each other again and series producer Marc Guggenheim previously shared that there is a good chance that Arrow will follow-through with the tease.


Aside from Oliver’s main narratives — which would also include featuring him being a father — Diggle (David Ramsay) is also said to have an eventful season, although it seems that it will not be in a good way. This only proves that Arrow season 6 will be focusing more on the core characters resulting in their decision to not add any new team members for the upcoming season.

Arrow season 6 premieres Thursday, October 12 @9pm on The CW.