Interview: Slade Or Shado In Present Day? And How Much Does Stephen Amell Know About What’s Next?

As we prepare for the season finale of Arrow, at 8PM (ET) on The CW, we should probably also think about the future… after all, who knows what cliffhangers they might leave us with.

When we spoke with Stephen Amell at The CW’s home base in Burbank, CA a few weeks ago, we asked him about one BIG question we have about the show’s future, keeping in mind that when we did this interview we knew very little about the finale: Could we see Shado or Slade in present-day Starling City? Here’s what Stephen had to say:

“It does seem like an inevitability that eventually, some aspect of the island will touch Oliver’s life in the present day,” he said. “I mean, really. Just name a character from the island. Slade, Shado, Edward Fyers, Yao Fei… if any of those people showed up in the present day, I think that would be awesome. I am a huge fan of LOST, and the most interesting switch in the storyline, for me, was when we found out that they got off the island. So you’re saying ‘okay. That’s interesting. They got off the island. How did they get off the island?’ Let’s say that Shado showed up in the present day, and she and Oliver had all of this history that they were discussing, and maybe they hugged and kissed when she showed up. I don’t know. But then you switch back to the island and you start going, ‘Well, wait. How did this happen?’ Because maybe their characters are in a very different place. So, from a storyline standpoint, that would be really fun, and as an acting exercise, that would be cool, because you can’t play to what you know is coming. It has to sort of happen naturally,” he explained.

So what does Stephen know about what’s coming next? “I know stuff,” he teased. “I’ve asked questions… I think the story on the island is really mapped out. If you talk with Andrew and Marc, they would say that this year, when we introduced Edward Fyers and Faux-Deathstroke, Billy Wintergreen, and Yao Fei rescued me and I was tortured a little bit, that was when they really discovered what the island could be, and we’ve pushed it that far, but I think they have a really cool idea, and really have it mapped out for what the island is going to be in season 2, and that will hopefully push us towards a couple of those episodes like Episode 14 [“The Odyssey”] where it’s a little bit more island-centric. As for Season 2 in the present day, I kind of know where we find Moira, Detective Lance… hmm… and Katie [Laurel]. I have no idea where Oliver is, at all. They had an idea for the first scene, but it’s something different than you would ever expect. I would actually hope that — I don’t know when Comic-Con is in relation to when we start our season, but I would hope that it would be something we could film, and just air, as a 90-second teaser at Comic-Con. It would be one of those “oh my God!” moments.”

Here’s some video:

If it hasn’t aired already where you are, don’t miss the finale TONIGHT on The CW, and be sure to come to our forum to talk about it once it’s done! (Heck, we already have a Countdown thread going on, if you’d like to join that countdown)