Stephen Amell Demanded One Thing Before Returning as Oliver Queen on The Flash
The ninth and final season of The Flash is about to premiere, with the first episode airing on February 8.
This season also is going to serve as the conclusion of the Arrowverse as a whole. And that warrants appearances of characters from the different corners of the Arrowverse. But one appearance that the viewers perhaps did not expect, on account on the character being dead, and his show making a big thing out of his death, was that of Arrow's Oliver Queen.
It had already been announced in that the ninth episode of The Flash 's Season 9 will bring back Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) as well as John Diggle/Spartan (David Ramsey) and Wally West/Kid Flash (Keiyan Lonsdale).
As The Flash's showrunner Eric Wallace told in an interview with TVLine:
"I called up Greg [Greg Berlanti, who oversees Arrowverse as a whole] and said, 'I have a crazy idea. What if Oliver Queen came back….,' and I pitched the story. He was like, 'I love it, let me call Stephen.' So he called Stephen, then called me back: 'Stephen loves it! Talk to him, pitch him the idea.'"
As Wallace added, Amell not only was enthusiastic about his character's return, but answered with a pitch of his own. Wallace's response was:
"'Let's do that! That's fantastic.' And the call ended with [Amell saying], 'I'm in. Let's make this happen.'"
So, as it seems, at least a part of the storyline involving Oliver Queen's return is going to be Amell's own idea.
Wallace did not disclose how exactly Oliver Queen managed to come back from the dead. But given that "comic book death" is a pejorative for a reason, and that Arrowverse features time travel, a multiverse, magic and provably existent afterlife, contriving a way to revive him is not remotely difficult. This resurrection was only unexpected because Oliver's own show had been completed, and, again, its finale tried its best to convince us that his death is meaningful.
Well, at least we can hope for an emotional reunion between Oliver Queen and Barry Allen (Grant Gustin ). "There won't be a dry eye in the house at the end of that episode," Wallace promised in his interview. "It's extremely emotional."