Spoiler Actor & Character Leaves Arrow

If you recall, last month saw the cast of Arrow tease what many thought to be the death of a major character.

Stephen Amell tweeted that “sometimes real feelings creep into a scene” and “good-byes are tough. Even when they’re scripted.”

Now it’s become known exactly what Amell was talking about.

Spoilers follow for the latest episode of Arrow.

Tonight on Arrow saw Arrow’s sidekick Roy Harper, aka Arsenal, leave Starling City at the end of the episode. Roy had pretended to be Arrow last week, and then this week saw Roy stage his own death in prison, escape, and decided to leave Team Arrow as he drove off in his car.

The departure was brought on as a result of Colton Haynes’ contract ending on Arrow.

Deadline does note Haynes will still be appearing in another episode of Arrow this year and that talks are underway for the actor to appear on episodes of The Flash or the new Arrow/Flash spinoff.

Arrow EP Greg Berlanti told Deadline that they always knew Colton Haynes would be on for just two seasons.

“When we made the deal. We made a two-season deal that had a clock on it, we always knew that,” Berlanti said. “When he was coming off Teen Wolf, we described the role to him, and we agreed to do it for a couple of years.”

Both Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim did state they left it open for Haynes to return, and that is why they didn’t kill the character off.

“We wanted to do something different,” Berlanti continued. “These characters are so young, they represent the next generation of superheroes, and we love the idea of having them just out there. And as a person we like Colton so much, we all would love to see him back. Such a talented, great guy.”

“The hope is that he’ll continue to be part of the universe we are building,” Guggenheim added. “We love working with his so much. We’ve talked to him about returning to one of the three shows, and if available, he has expressed interest. He is gone but definitely not forever.”