Arrow got some great news recently when The CW went public with the announcement that the long-running vigilante series was renewed for Season 7. Unfortunately, not everyone with the show will be involved in the same capacities. Arrow-verse figurehead Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle are stepping down as Arrow's co-showrunners, with co-executive producer Beth Schwartz filling the role as the lone showrunner for the seventh season. The changes don't end there, either.
Putting his Arrow showrunning duties in the rear-view mirror for the first time since the show started in 2012, Marc Guggenheim is also stepping back from his co-showrunner duties on Legends of Tomorrow, where Phil Klemmer will remain in charge of the day to day duties for Season 4. Guggenheim will be taking on an executive consultant title for both Arrow and Legends' future seasons. (It sounds somewhat similar to how The Walking Dead's now-former showrunner Scott Gimple took on an overarching role above the franchise's creative teams.) So you can bet Guggenheim will still have a big influence on the bigger arc directions, even if he won't be quite as hands-on as he was before.
Wendy Mericle, on the other hand, won't be involved with the new season at all, as she is exiting the Arrow-verse in its entirety. Mericle was a writer and producer for Arrow when she was promoted to co-showrunner in Season 4, and she oversaw some of Team Arrow's most tumultuous years. We have yet to see how she and Guggenheim capped the team's sixth year off, but we aren't expecting lots of hugging and apologies from the embattled Diggle and Oliver.
Beth Schwartz's promotion is understandably being embraced by the crew, at least that's how Arrow-verse boss Greg Berlanti put it, according to THR. She's been working with Berlanti since his Everwood days, where she served as his assistant. She joined Arrow as a writer's assistant years ago, and has only climbed up and moved forward ever since. Since this will be the first season without Marc Guggenheim partly driving things, we can't wait to see what changes Schwartz will bring in when Season 7 goes into production.
For what it's worth, these changes are only affecting Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, while the rest of The CW's superhero shows will be maintaining their current showrunner structures. It wasn't that long ago, don't forget, that former Arrow-verse exec Andrew Kreisberg was fired from his showrunning duties after workplace misconduct complaints were made. But for now, it's work as usual for The Flash, Supergirl and Black Lightning.
With several episodes left to cap the season off, Arrow Season 6 airs Thursday nights on The CW at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see what other shows will be around to take its place while we wait for Season 7, head to our midseason premiere schedule and our summer premiere schedule.
