Colton Haynes’ Roy Harper has been a presence on Arrow since the show’s first season. However, he will not be returning as a series regular for its eighth and final season.
Haynes regained his series regular status during Arrow’s seventh season where he played an older version of his character in the flash-forward segments of the show. And there are still many questions about his character that have remained unanswered.
Unfortunately, this news calls into question whether we’ll ever get the answers we’ve wanted about what happened to Roy between the time he left with Thea Queen to find Lazarus Pits and when he showed up decades later on the island of Lian Yu.
During the Television Critics Association press tour, Arrow executive producer Beth Schwartz said in an interview with GreenArrowTV, “We hope to have him back.” She added, “We love him and he’s obviously one of the foundations of the show.”
After the news came out, fans believed it meant that Haynes chose to leave the show, so the actor took to Twitter to clarify. “I didn’t exit the last season of Arrow. I was not asked to come back for the final season as a series regular.”
Yet, Haynes ended his comments on a hopeful note, writing, “But y’all know Roy…he’s never gone for too long.”
Getting a lot of angry messages so just to clarify…I didn’t exit the last season of Arrow. I was not asked to come back for the final season as a series regular. But y’all know Roy…he’s never gone for too long ???
— Colton Haynes (@ColtonLHaynes) August 8, 2019
Hopefully, that means Haynes will stop by for a guest spot at some point during Arrow’s final ten episodes!
Arrow’s final season will air on Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW. The season premieres on October 15.