Only one season of Arrow is left before the show that kicked off the entire epic Arrow-verse comes to an end, and it will be by far the shortest Arrow season to date. So, there are a lot of questions about what will go down before the end, not the least of which is what happens to Oliver in the "Crisis" crossover and where Felicity goes. It'll be a while still before we get the answers to those questions, but showrunner Beth Schwartz has shared a key Season 8 premiere detail: the title.
Beth Schwartz kept a very tight lid on spoilers ahead of Season 7, which is why the flash-forwards came as such a huge surprise to so many, so the cryptic nature of the title and its presentation on social media makes sense. Still, it confirms some details while also giving fans material to speculate about for the coming months. Take a look!
Beth Schwartz revealed via Twitter that the final season premiere of Arrow will be tantalizingly titled "Starling City," was written by her and former showrunner Marc Guggenheim, and directed by stunts master and veteran Arrow director James Bamford. Notably, the photo shows the title page twice: one right-side up and one upside down, with an Oliver Queen Funko Pop in the middle.
There are a lot of questions about this photo, but at least it does reveal some concrete details. The episode was penned by the two people who have been in charge over Arrow over its long run on The CW, which suggests that it could be one of the most important of the series to date. Marc Guggenheim only wrote or co-wrote two episodes in Season 7, and one of them was the middle leg of the "Elseworlds" crossover between Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl.
It also makes me wonder if "Starling City" will connect back to earlier seasons of the show, when Guggenheim was showrunner. Beth Schwartz could cover the more recent events.
Speaking of "Starling City," the title is definitely intriguing. As fans will remember, Arrow's city was called Starling City during the first three seasons, after which it was changed to "Star City" to honor Ray Palmer, who everybody thought was dead at the beginning of Season 4. Is Arrow changing the name back? The city is still called "Star City" in the flash-forwards revolving around Mia Smoak. Perhaps Arrow will embrace flashbacks again, although it might be hard to buy Stephen Amell as an early-20-something at this point.
Or are there wilder explanations for "Starling City" as the premiere title? Arrow has been impacted by time travel shenanigans from The Flash before, and The Flash will air new episodes on Tuesdays right ahead of new episodes of Arrow in The CW's lineup shuffle for the 2019-2020 TV season. It also premieres this fall a week ahead of Arrow. Could the Season 6 premiere of The Flash mess up the timeline in more drastic ways than changing Diggle's daughter to a son?
Or will part of the premiere take place in an alternate universe, in which Starling City never became Star City? Maybe it could even be partially set in whatever universe Oliver wound up in thanks to The Monitor in "Crisis on Infinite Earths." There are all but infinite possibilities at this point, and that gives Arrow fans something to go on as we wait for the premiere of the eighth and final season.
2019 Fall TV Premiere Schedule: Dates For New And Returning Shows
Arrow Season 8 premieres on Tuesday, October 15 at 9 p.m. ET on The CW. Fortunately, San Diego Comic-Con is coming up next week, and CinemaBlend will be on hand to deliver the latest news about Arrow and the rest of the Arrow-verse, so stay tuned!
