Go Behind the Scenes of ‘Arrow’ Season 7 (PHOTOS)
Move over, Neo! Sea Shimooka (aka Oliver’s half sister Emiko) wowed the writers with her gymnastic abilities so much “that they had the confidence to write more [physically] challenging material,” says Shimooka. Case in point: this incredible Matrix-like backbend!
The Star City Police Department was just one of the sets Juliana Harkavy (with Rick Gonzalez) got to play on this season. “It’s been really cool that she has the SCPD, as well as Team Arrow and the future storyline,” she says of metahuman Dinah. “You [got] to see all these different shades of her that we have not seen before.”
“Suiting back up was so much fun, and it really does make you feel like a superhero,” says Colton Haynes of his full-time return as Oliver ally Roy Harper, who appeared in just two episodes of Season 6. Joking about his 2040 flash-forward, he adds, “I got a glimpse of what I’m going to look like in 20 years. Let’s hope I have that much hair left!”
2040 squad goals! Katherine McNamara, who plays Mia, the grown daughter of Oliver and Felicity in Arrow‘s future timeline, is excited to dig deeper into the young woman’s sibling bond with Ben Lewis’s William (left) as well as her “complicated chemistry” with Joseph David-Jones’s Connor (right). “It’s a treat diving in and exploring this with Ben and Jojo,” she says.
But what he really wants to do is direct! David Ramsey, who plays former Special Forces soldier John Diggle, went behind the camera for the first time to helm Season 7’s 11th episode. “It was fantastic! And I’m hearing — fingers crossed — I’ll be doing it again,” says Ramsey (in red, with Kelly Hu and Kirk Acevedo as A.R.G.U.S. Supermax prisoners China White and crime lord Ricardo Diaz).
Calling costar Emily Bett Rickards (tech genius Felicity, right) “a breath of fresh air,” Katie Cassidy (left) has relished seeing her Earth-2 Laurel and Felicity go from foes to allies throughout the season. The friendship reflects a real-life camaraderie. “Emily has helped shape me into a better actor,” Cassidy says. “She is extremely pre-sent and emotionally available in every single scene, every single moment.”
Stephen Amell says filming vigilante Oliver’s scenes in Slabside Prison “felt like I was on a different show” because he wasn’t working with his normal cast and he had a much lighter schedule at the start of the season. “We’d [shoot] my stuff at the top of the episode and then I’d be off for, like, 10 days!”
Whether they were in Slabside Prison or Star City 2040, the cast of Arrow killed it on Season 7 thanks to long days and late nights on the Vancouver set.
Click through the gallery above for behind-the-scenes photos and insight from the cast.
Arrow, Eighth and Final Season Premiere, Tuesday, October 15, 9/8c, The CW
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