MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD for the series finale of Arrow on The CW.
The Arrow series finale ended Oliver Queen's story with some closure, but another Arrow hero's journey may take him to outer space. The final episode ended John Diggle's story with Oliver's longtime righthand man packing up to move his family to Metropolis, only to be knocked to the ground by something crashing to the ground from space. That something turned out to be a glowing green box that seemingly confirmed fan speculation that Diggle is the Arrow-verse version of DC Comics Green Lantern John Stewart. So could he return to the Arrow-verse despite the end of Arrow, as Green Lantern?
The scene of Diggle finding the glowing green box was a long-awaited (and more or less promised) payoff, but it didn't show a Green Lantern ring or anything to confirm he could have a Green Lantern future. Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim addressed the big reveal in the series finale, saying this:
That was something that we’ve been working our way towards for a good long time now. I think for maybe about a year, year-and-a-half we’ve known that this was a moment we’re going to be able to do, and it made sense to do it in the finale because my attitude is that even though the show ends, as long as the characters are alive the characters continue on. One of the things we wanted to do with the finale was give you a sense as to what their post-show trajectories would be. And certainly, Diggle’s is probably the most intriguing.
Unlike the Arrow-verse nabbing Ezra Miller for a last-minute appearance in "Crisis on Infinite Earths," Arrow delivering a Green Lantern twist for John Diggle has evidently been in the works for quite a long time. On the one hand, there was no real reason not to give a sign of something very exciting for John Diggle in the future, since the end of Arrow means the end of his story as the right hand of the universe's founding hero anyway. On the other hand, the larger Arrow-verse continues, and so could John Diggle's story.
As Marc Guggenheim noted, the characters left alive at the end of the series finale -- and there were quite a few living characters who were very much dead before "Crisis on Infinite Earths" -- could go in pretty much any direction. Laurel, Dinah, and Mia's futures are more or less set thanks to the 2040-set backdoor pilot for Green Arrow & the Canaries, but everybody else's future was up in the air. Who could argue that Diggle's potential Green Lantern future isn't one of the most intriguing?
Marc Guggenheim went on in his chat with Deadline to explain that there's not a lot he can say about a possible future for Diggle as a suited-up Green Lantern:
That I can’t really speak to because this moment was, like a lot of things, a sort of negotiation with the powers that be about, ‘Okay, what exactly can we show? How far can we take this?’ I think it’s probably best. To me, the bets approach was to let the moment speak for itself and we’ll sort of see where the future takes us.
What is certain at this point is that some Green Lantern action is coming to the small screen, although not necessarily in the Arrow-verse. HBO Max ordered a Green Lantern series, which has been confirmed to include more than one Green Lantern. Could David Ramsey jump from The CW to HBO Max to play a Green Lantern, and thus add one more show to the Arrow-verse? "Crisis on Infinite Earths" already incorporated pretty much everything else from DC TV!
Even if David Ramsey isn't destined for the HBO Max series, there is a way for him to potentially suit up as Green Lantern in the Arrow-verse, and not necessarily due to his upcoming appearance on The Flash. The Arrow finale established that Diggle and his family are moving to Metropolis, which just so happens to be the setting of the upcoming Superman & Lois series. It might be kind of strange for a superhero series set in Metropolis not to include one of Arrow's surviving superheroes when he's right there, right?
David Ramsey couldn't explain what the glowing green box means for Diggle's future in the Arrow-verse, but he dropped some teasing comments at an Arrow series finale press screening (via TVLine) worth getting excited about:
I don’t know what that means. But he does go to Metropolis, and he got a green box. We’ll still see, believe it or not. We’ll find out.
Fans may not get to see Diggle suited up as Green Lantern, but David Ramsey indicates that some answers are on the way! Personally, I'm hoping Diggle at least mentions the glowing green box when he drops by The Flash in its winter premiere. He did recently see Barry, after Barry zoomed over to Star City for Oliver's funeral, and the disbanding of Team Arrow means he'd have to go somewhere else to try and dig into whatever it was that landed in front of him and glowed green.
Unfortunately, the episode description for Diggle's visit to The Flash (which is now the most senior Arrow-verse series) doesn't give away any details about what he's doing there:
After The Citizen prints an explosive story, Iris's (Candice Patton) life is threatened. Refusing to hide from those that are attacking her, Iris sets out to expose a dangerous organization. Meanwhile, Barry (Grant Gustin) must face the consequences of the Crisis and fulfill Oliver Queen's wish for him.
See what's next for John Diggle with the winter premiere of The Flash, called "Marathon," which airs on Tuesday, February 4 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. The Arrow-verse continues even without Arrow, and we'll have to wait and see if Arrow's spinoff gets a series order. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV and movie news, and don't forget to swing by our 2020 winter and spring premiere schedule for more viewing options.
