The Fastest Man Alive is speeding towards the end of his adventures on The CW. The Flash season 9 will mark the conclusion of the long-running Arrow spinoff, which first aired in 2014. The final season will consist of 13 episodes meant to wrap up the story of Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen and his extended family of heroes. True to the nature of the expansive superhero universe in which The Flash takes place, the final run of episodes will also provide an opportunity for The CW to bring back characters from the show’s past.
The CW has confirmed that The Flash season 9 will see the return of five major Arrowverse characters, including Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale), John Diggle (David Ramsey), and the gruesome villain Bloodwork (Sendhil Ramamurthy). It was also previously revealed that Javicia Leslie would reprise her role as Batwoman (as well as another mystery character we won’t spoil here). But there’s an even bigger showstopper in the works for season 9: the return of Stephen Amell as the Green Arrow.
Amell, who kicked off The CW’s fledgling superhero universe as the star of Arrow in 2012, exited the franchise in 2020 after his character sacrificed himself to save his friends in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. Since then, The Flash has carried on Arrow‘s legacy as the last of the Arrowverse shows currently airing on the network (Superman & Lois technically takes place on an alternate Earth). To bring back Amell for the spinoff’s last hoorah makes plenty of sense, especially as its finale could end up being a sendoff for CW’s Arrowverse as a whole.
“As soon as our final season was announced, we knew we wanted Stephen to come back and reprise his iconic role as Oliver Queen,” said executive producer Eric Wallace in a statement. “After all, it was Oliver who originally launched Barry Allen on his heroic path. That’s why everyone on Team Flash felt so strongly that it was important to create a full-circle moment with Oliver’s return in the final season of The Flash. The result is an epic-yet-emotional episode we hope Arrowverse fans will enjoy. It’s all to say ‘thank you’ to everyone for watching and supporting our show throughout nine wonderful years. We absolutely cannot wait for everyone to see Grant and Stephen saving the world together again. And yes, there will be thrills, chills and tears.”
According to Deadline, Oliver Queen will guest star in episode 909, but the story details regarding his return remain under wraps. The last we heard of Oliver, he was hanging out in a pocket dimension afterlife created by the Monitor, reuniting with Felicity in 2040. Whether he makes a brief escape from the afterlife to hang out with Team Flash one last time, or 909 is a flashback episode, is anyone’s guess. Or did Barry meddle with the timeline again, changing history and bringing Oliver back to life?
We’ll know for sure when The Flash begins its final lap on Feb. 8.