Arrow star admits "no one really wants" to make final season without Emily Bett Rickards

Photo credit: Warner Bros / Dean Buscher
Photo credit: Warner Bros / Dean Buscher

From Digital Spy

Arrow star David Ramsey has admitted that the show's cast members are really feeling the absence of Emily Bett Rickards after the actress said goodbye to the show at the end of the seventh season.

Rickards played Felicity Smoak in the CW series from season one right up until the season seven finale, and now Ramsey, who plays John Diggle, has shared that "no one really wants" to make the show without Rickards.

"We go back and Emily's not a part of it," Ramsey told Digital Spy. "That's a big thing. Y'know, no one really wants to do that show.

"[But] Stephen [Amell] and I both had conversations with the producers, telling us exactly what they want to do with the next season and it really is... it's exciting."

Photo credit: Dean Buscher - The CW
Photo credit: Dean Buscher - The CW

He continued: "I don't know how they're gonna do it, but whatever you think *could* happen, it's probably something else."

When asked if Arrow would now feel like a different show, the actor answered: "To some degree."

Another big change for the final season is that it will only be 10 episodes as opposed to the usual 22, something which Ramsey admits will take some getting used to when it comes to pacing out the show.

"For the past seven seasons we've been doing 22-23 episodes, so that's another muscle, just in terms of the pacing of one episode, because now you have just 10 [episodes] to tell this story that was normally told in twice as many episodes," he explained.

Photo credit: Dean Buscher - The CW
Photo credit: Dean Buscher - The CW

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Ramsey also spoke about how the upcoming 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' crossover will impact the final season, adding: "Multiple Earths... all of that if stuff they're going to be playing with, I think.

"'Crisis' does have a lot to do with multiple Earths, so..."

And as to whether Diggle will get a happy ending or whether he'll go out in a blaze of glory, Ramsey isn't giving too much away on that front.

"I know some of the answer to that, based on what I know about what happens ultimately to John Diggle, so I would say that it's both," he teased.

Arrow airs on The CW in the US, and Sky One and NOW TV in the UK.


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