Emily Bett Rickards to Leave 'Arrow' Before Final Season

The actress, who plays Felicity Smoak on the show, announced her departure in a poem on Instagram.


Arrow is saying goodbye to a key cast member before the series comes to a close in its eighth and final season.


On Saturday, Emily Bett Rickards, who plays Felicity Smoak on the show, announced that she will soon be departing the superhero drama in a poem on Instagram. She said she will leave by the end of the penultimate seventh season of The CW show, which is currently ongoing.


"The time has come to talk of many / memes. Of bows and arrows and / superheroes and Olicity and Queens," the poem began. At another point, she wrote, "Felicity and I / are a very tight two / But after one through seven / we will be saying goodbye to you."


In a final note to fans, the actress added, "I thank you all for the time we’ve shared / The elevators we have climbed / The monsters we have faced and scared / And The burgers we have dined / I will keep her in my heart for always / And I hope that you can too / Because she would not be alive if it weren’t for all of you."


Rickard's co-star, Stephen Amell, shared a photo of Rickard's character in season one on Twitter not long after Rickards posted her tweet.


"We’ve had the pleasure of working with Emily since season one and in those past seven years she has brought one of TV’s most beloved characters to life," executive producers Greg Berlanti and Beth Schwartz said in a statement. "And although we’re heartbroken to see both Emily and Felicity leave the show, we’re completely supportive of Emily and her future endeavors. She will always have a family at Arrow."


The final season of the series will air in the fall during the 2019-2020 broadcast season, CW president Mark Pedowitz announced at the TCA winter press tour earlier in the month. "Things will age and we want to get the next generation of shows to keep The CW DC universe going for as long as possible," he said.