The cast of "Arrow" had their dancing shoes on at Comic-Con, as they tried to their best to sidestep questions about their characters' fates after the explosive Season 5 finale.
TooFab caught up with cast members Stephen Amell, Emily Bett Rickards, Willa Holland, David Ramsey, Echo Kellum, Rick Gonzalez, Juliana Harkavy and executive producer Wendy Mericle over the weekend, where they talked about that cliffhanger, potential love stories to come and how the show's flashbacks will change going forward.
About That Cliffhanger
The season ended with Oliver and his won William on an island off the coast of Lian Yu, where the rest of the cast seemingly perished when explosives were set off throughout the island.
The trailer for Season 6 indicated that Black Siren (Katie Cassidy), Dinah Drake (Harkavy) and Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) survived the blast, but what about everyone else?
"Yeah, so were were in Slade's bunker for 5 whole days before we ...." Rickards joked. "We went to the Cayman Islands because it's so close to Lian Yu. We used a row boat to get there, it was a lot of fun," added Kellum.
"I'm dead the whole season," Kellum continued. "The camera gets a shot of me dead in the bunker every episode. I still get paid technically, one day a week. I have to sit there 14 hours and just be dead."
On a more serious note, Ramsey confirmed the show will pickup 5 months after the events on the island and fans will know "pretty quickly" what happened to everyone. "There's been some damage that's happened from the island, not just the explosion, but some of the repercussions it's going to take the rest of Season 6 to deal with," he added. "People will pay a price. That explosion, some have said it's much ado about nothing, but it was worth it because of the damage." The actor said his character is "profoundly affected" by what happened.
Holland said she was wondering if she still "had a job" after she saw the script for the finale. "No one's ever dead, but who knows," she teased. "Maybe someone is dead. Everybody's dead, nobody's dead. You decide!"
Amell promised "I feel like we can every question for what happened in the aftermath of 5.23, in the immediate moments after."
Looking for Love
Ramsey pretty much confirmed Diggle survives the blast when he talked about his character's marital problems on-screen wife Lyla.
"No, we're going to play with that all of Season 6," he explained. "That's big, a big big arc. Whatever you call this vigilante team and being married to the leader of ARGUS, that's easily a six episode arc right there, isn't it? That's just good storytelling. We're gonna play with that a lot more. This couple's been married once, divorced, married again. We're going to play with that relationship a lot this season."
Mericle touched on the Olicity dynamic as well.
"If she survives, it's something the fans love, obviously it's a core component of the show and if she pulls through and comes out of that explosion, there's no way we can't address that question," she said.
Dinah is also said to be getting a new love interest too, though that was news to Harkavy. "I am just as surprised as everyone else. I didn't know," she explained. "Dinah, she's so dynamic. and thats one facet of her we haven't seen yet. The whole journey started because she lost her love. I'm excited for her."
And Holland, she hoped fans might see Thea warm up to Wild Dog.
"I love Rik, so I wish Thea would be a little nicer to him," she said. "Did she have to be so mean, it's kind of really rude. That one, hopefully in season 6, who knows. Who knows who's around? Who knows anything! My hope for season six is that Thea would be nicer to his character."
A New Kind of Flashback
When the show returns, Oliver's flashbacks to his missing years will cease, but that doesn't mean the show is doing away with them for good.
"We have so much more real estate now to talk about other people's backgrounds," Mericle explained. "Oliver's story on the island or anywhere else in the last 5 years, that story is done. We will still see flashbacks to other parts of Oliver's background. The thing we're most excited about in the writers room, is getting flashbacks from other people's point of view. Whoever survives the explosion, we might see their flashbacks. We were always really married to telling Oliver's story, which was fantastic, and now we get to change it up."
"I'm not sad, we told the story. I think flashbacks from 2008-2012 are done and if they want to flashback before then, you better have good CGI," Amell added. "5 years have taken a toll on me. Personally, I'm excited they're done. We have the deepest bench we've had on the show and to take 8 minutes I had and to give them to someone else, that's really nice."
Gonzalez said he'd love to see more of his own character's past, adding "I believe there's a huge story with his military background."
Harkavy added she'd love to see what Black Siren's life looked like in her alternate universe, while Rickards wanted to learn more about Dinah Drake. "Julianna's flashbacks would be really sick," she said, "I don't know anything about her character's past. Felicity doesn't know anything about her, but she trusts her."
Other tidbits we picked up from the press room:
If Stephen Amell has his way, there won't be following in "The Flash" and "Supergirl's" footsteps with a musical episode. "5, 10, 15 minutes after never. Never," he said, "We can't do a musical episode ever. Never." Mericle agreed, saying the show was too dark.
Harkavy thinks her new costume is "awesome." "The first day we had it done and stood in front of the mirror, I wept," she added. "I felt the responsibility of playing that character. It just felt so empowering and it was a really special moment."
- Oliver and William's relationship will take the show in a new direction. "We've never seen a superhero on TV with a son," Mericle said. "I don't know how you would do it. It raises a whole bunch of questions, so year we're gonna go down that road."
