Development On January 8, 2017,
The CW renewed
Arrow for a sixth season. This was the final season to feature
Wendy Mericle as showrunner;
Marc Guggenheim served as co-showrunner.
Writing The fifth-season finale ended with
Oliver Queen and
William Clayton witnessing the island
Lian Yu explode as a result of
Adrian Chase shooting himself, a
dead man's switch, with many of Oliver's allies still on the island. Guggenheim said the fates of the characters would be revealed in the sixth season, but cautioned, "I know everyone is trying to determine who survives, who dies, what is the result of the cliffhanger based upon people's contractual status, and I would say that's not necessarily a good idea". He compared this to
The Walking Dead season six finale because it had "a group of characters, all of whom were series regulars, in a dire situation at the end of their season. Just because they were series regulars did not mean that everyone came out of that cliffhanger alive." He also said the theme of the sixth season would be "family", adding that "last year we spent a whole season really building up this team, this new Team Arrow, and this year we've got the team in place – what sort of damage can we do? So much of
Arrow lives in the challenges and trials that we put the characters through."
Casting Main cast members
Stephen Amell,
David Ramsey,
Willa Holland,
Emily Bett Rickards,
Echo Kellum and
Paul Blackthorne return from previous seasons as Oliver Queen,
John Diggle,
Thea Queen,
Felicity Smoak,
Curtis Holt and
Quentin Lance.
Katie Cassidy, who portrayed
Laurel Lance / Black Canary as a regular from season one to four and recurred as the character's
Earth-2 doppelganger
Black Siren in season five, was reinstated as a regular for season six, playing the latter role. Cassidy also portrayed the Earth-1 Laurel in "
Fundamentals". As with the fifth season, Holland was contracted only to appear in a limited number of episodes, but Guggenheim declined to reveal how many exactly. Holland left the series after her contract expired, her final appearance as a regular being "
The Thanatos Guild". This was also Blackthorne's final season as a regular; he left after the
season finale. Former series regulars
Manu Bennett and
Josh Segarra returned as
Slade Wilson and Adrian Chase respectively in a guest capacity.
Colin Donnell, also a former series regular, returned for two different roles as a guest: the
Earth-X version of
Tommy Merlyn who is that Earth's
Prometheus; and
Christopher Chance / Human Target disguised as the Earth-1 Tommy.
Colton Haynes, who starred as
Roy Harper / Arsenal in seasons two and three and was a guest star in season four, again returned in a guest capacity.
Design Maya Mani designed the costumes for the season. Additionally, he wears his original "Hood" outfit from the first season during the episode "Fundamentals". In the sixth season, Diggle gains a new Spartan costume and helmet, which eschew the gray overtones of previous Spartan costumes, and instead have a black and red scheme. The Wild Dog costume for the season was substantially revamped; while the original introduced in season five consisted of "a hockey jersey, hockey mask and holsters", the new costume was made to be more tactical and armor-like, while retaining the older costume's color scheme. The Black Canary costume introduced in the season consists of a domino mask, long gloves and a bo staff.
Filming Filming for the season began on July 6, 2017, in
Vancouver,
British Columbia. The episode "
Thanksgiving" re-uses archive footage of
Billy Joel from his concert of August 4, 2015, at the
Nassau Coliseum in
Long Island, performing the song "
No Man's Land". To do this, Guggenheim personally wrote to Joel seeking permission. Filming for the season ended in late April 2018.
Arrowverse tie-ins In May 2017, The CW president
Mark Pedowitz officially announced plans for a four-show
Arrowverse crossover event, crossing over episodes of the television series
Supergirl,
The Flash,
Legends of Tomorrow, and
Arrow. The crossover,
Crisis on Earth-X, began with
Supergirl and a special airing of
Arrow on November 27, 2017, and concluded on
The Flash and
Legends of Tomorrow on November 28. Throughout the crossover, Stephen Amell also portrayed Oliver's Earth-X doppelganger
Dark Arrow. while the character
Barry Allen / The Flash did so in the following episode "
The Devil's Greatest Trick";
Grant Gustin did not film any scenes, since the character is only shown speeding through lightning. == Release ==