Fans are trying to figure out who survived the explosion on Lian Yu in the “Arrow” season 5 finale, but seeing as how executive producer Marc Guggenheim has said in the past that he won’t kill Thea because she’s the only family Oliver has left, there’s a good chance she survived.
Thea’s story has gotten much more personal over the last two seasons, but fans didn’t see as much of her in season 5. After Thea left Star City for a little while she was mostly absent from the second half of the season, and Marc Guggenheim noted that Willa Holland requested to cut back the number of episodes she would work in season 5.
“We love Willa, we love Thea the character and we particularly love Thea’s relationship with Oliver,” Guggenheim told ComicBook.com. “That said, Willa came to us at the end of season four and she, very honestly, expressed a desire to cut back how many episodes a season she was doing. She’s a member of our family, and we wanted to honor that request. That’s what happens when you have a show that goes over a hundred episodes, people start to say, ‘hey, I would like to pull back,’ some people don’t want to renew their contract. There’s a whole host of different things that start to come into play and you work that into the story telling.”
It’s hard to blame Willa for wanting to take a little time away after all the hard work she’s put into the show, but Thea is a fan favorite so hopefully we’ll be seeing more of her in season 6.
Now that the island flashbacks are over, a whole new avenue for story telling has opened up for the writers, and when asked what’s next for Thea, Guggenheim teased that fans should keep their eyes on the flashbacks.
“All I’ll say really, and you can interpret this however you want, is Willa is back on the show and we are doing flashbacks from people’s perspective that does not always include Oliver’s,” Guggenheim said. “I’ll let you extrapolate from that what you will.”
“Arrow” will return on Thursday, October 12.
After a violent shipwreck, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) was missing and presumed dead for five years before being discovered alive on a remote island in the North China Sea. He returned home to Star City, bent on righting the wrongs done by his family and fighting injustice.
As the Green Arrow, he protects his city with the help of former soldier John Diggle (David Ramsey), computer-science expert Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), his vigilante-trained sister Thea Queen (Willa Holland), Deputy Mayor Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne), brilliant inventor Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum), and his new recruits, street-savvy Rene Ramirez (Rick Gonzalez) and meta-human Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy).
Oliver has finally solidified and strengthened his crime-fighting team only to have it threatened when unexpected enemies from his past return to Star City, forcing Oliver to rethink his relationship with each member of his “family”.
