stephen amell arrow

The man behind Oliver Queen, Stephen Amell, has recently taken to social media to set the record straight about one popular fan rumor for ‘Arrow‘ Season 7, where the fans were claiming that Oliver would only be in prison for about 3 episodes (which is the usual time the show takes to resolves a “serious” storyline like this and get things back to status quo). Amell took to Twitter to refute this rumor, with a simple “False,” which you can check out below:

This lines up with what star Emily Bett Rickards stated a few months ago as well, making it sound like Oliver’s stay in prison was going to be a bit longer than expected, which puts his family and friends in danger from his enemies:

“The idea now is: If Oliver’s in prison, is he actually more protected than the team? The rest of the team is all going to be in danger as well. Where that puts Felicity and William, I mean, we can only do so much to protect them.”

Not to mention that the official SEASON synopsis for next year has come out and it makes it sound like Oliver will be in prison for a while:

“There has been no shortage of close calls for Oliver Queen when it comes to protecting
his Super Hero identity, but in the season six finale, he was finally backed into a corner
and forced to reveal himself to the world as the Green Arrow. Now, Oliver will come
face-to-face with many of the criminals he placed behind bars, as he makes a new home
for himself at Slabside Maximum Security Prison. Oliver will find himself vulnerable in
a way unlike ever before when a mysterious new enemy begins to unravel his work as
Green Arrow, challenging him to redeem his name or risk losing everything.”

Now while I do agree with the fans that the show usually ties up storylines like ‘Oliver in Prison’ after 2 or 3 episodes, this seems like a story that is going to take more time to resolve. I am worried, however, that the show might get bogged down with Oliver in prison, spending a lot more time behind bars than fighting crime on the streets, which has been their bread and butter for 6 seasons. Hopefully, they’ll be able to strike a nice balance, though ‘Arrow’ does not have a great track record for handling complicated storylines with the potential to self-implode. For now, I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed that this time around they know what they’re doing.