The sixth season of the American television series ''

Arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...

'' premiered on

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

on October 12, 2017, and concluded on May 17, 2018, with a total of 23 episodes. The series is based on the

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

character

Green Arrow Green Arrow is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and designed by George Papp, he first appeared in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 in November 1941. His secret identity, real name is Olive ...

, a costumed crime-fighter created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, and is set in the Arrowverse, sharing continuity with other Arrowverse television series. The showrunners for this season were Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle. Stephen Amell stars as

Oliver Queen Green Arrow is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and designed by George Papp, he first appeared in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 in November 1941. His secret identity, real name is Olive ...

, with principal cast members

David Ramsey David Paul Ramsey (born November 17, 1971) is an American actor, director, and martial artist, best known for his roles in The CW Arrowverse series '' Arrow'', '' The Flash'', ''Supergirl'', and '' Batwoman'' as John Diggle / Spartan, portrayin ...

as John Diggle, Willa Holland as

Thea Queen Thea Dearden Queen, also known as Speedy, is a fictional character portrayed by Willa Holland on The CW television series ''Arrow'', created by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg. She is the maternal half-sister of series protag ...

, Emily Bett Rickards as

Felicity Smoak Felicity Smoak is a fictional character appearing in comics published by DC Comics. Her first appearance was in ''The Fury of Firestorm'' #23 (May 1984), created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Rafael Kayanan. She was originally the manager of ...

, Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt and

Paul Blackthorne Paul Blackthorne (born 5 March 1969) is an English actor. Although born in Shropshire, he spent his early childhood on UK military bases in Britain and Germany. Blackthorne broke into acting via television commercials in England. His breakthro ...

as Quentin Lance also returning from previous seasons. Katie Cassidy, a principal cast member from seasons

one 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

four 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

and a guest actor for

season five A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...

, was reinstated as a series regular for the sixth season as Laurel Lance / Black Siren. They are joined by Rick Gonzalez as

Rene Ramirez ''Arrow'' is an American superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, a costumed crime-fighter created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, and is se ...

and

Juliana Harkavy Juliana Jay Harkavy (born January 1, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for portraying Rebecca in ''Dolphin Tale'', Jessie in ''To Write Love on her Arms'', and Alisha in the television series '' The Walking Dead''. Her roles include ...

Dinah Drake Black Canary (Dinah Drake) is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by the writer-artist team of Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, the character debuted in ''Flash Comics'' #86 (August 1947) as ...

, who were promoted to series regulars from their recurring status in the previous season. The series follows billionaire playboy

( Stephen Amell), who claimed to have spent five years shipwrecked on Lian Yu, a mysterious island in the North China Sea, before returning home to Starling City (later renamed "Star City") to fight crime and corruption as a secret vigilante whose weapon of choice is a bow and arrow. In the sixth season, after an explosive battle on Lian Yu, Oliver must balance being a vigilante, the mayor, and a father to his son,

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

. At the same time, new enemies emerge, initially led by terrorist hacker

Cayden James ''Arrow'' is an American superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, a costumed crime-fighter created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, and is set in ...

( Michael Emerson), who allies himself with various criminals including drug dealer Ricardo Diaz (

Kirk Acevedo Kirk M. Acevedo (born November 27, 1971) is an American actor. He is primarily known for his work on television for the portrayals of Miguel Alvarez in the HBO series '' Oz'', Joe Toye in '' Band of Brothers'', and FBI Agent Charlie Francis i ...

), metahuman vigilante

Vincent Sobel ''Arrow'' is an American superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, a costumed crime-fighter created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, and is set in ...

(portrayed by

Johann Urb Johann Urb (born 24 January 1977) is an Estonian-American actor, producer, and former model. Early life and education Johann Urb was born in Tallinn to parents Tarmo and Maris Urb. His father is an Estonian musician and the brother of actor ...

, voiced by

Mick Wingert Micky R. Wingert (born July 4, 1974) is an American voice actor. He is known for his role as the voice of Master Po and Zeng in '' Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness'', taking over the roles from actors Jack Black and Dan Fogler, respective ...

when masked), Russian mobster

Anatoly Knyazev KGBeast (Anatoli Knyazev) is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo, the character first appeared as an adversary of Batman. KGBeast has appeared in numerous cartoon television shows a ...

(

David Nykl David Nykl (born 7 February 1967) is a Czech-Canadian actor of film, television, commercials and theater. He is best known for portraying Dr. Radek Zelenka in the SyFy television series ''Stargate Atlantis'' and Anatoly Knyazev in the DC Comi ...

), and metahuman Black Siren. As James loses control of his cabal, Ricardo Diaz comes to the fore and kills him, revealing that he manipulated James into believing Oliver killed his son, and announcing to Green Arrow his scheme to take over Star City's criminal underworld and control the city's political infrastructure, all while Oliver must contend with his former teammates forming a rival team. As Diaz takes control of the city, Oliver is forced to recruit the aid of the FBI, in exchange for him publicly announcing his identity and going to federal prison. In the finale, Oliver is imprisoned in a maximum security penitentiary. The series was renewed for its sixth season on January 8, 2017, and filming began in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

on July 6, 2017, and ended in late April 2018. The season received mixed reviews from critics compared to other seasons of the series. This season includes the fourth annual Arrowverse crossover with TV series ''

The Flash The Flash (or simply Flash) is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (cover date ...

'', '' Legends of Tomorrow'' and '' Supergirl'', and with elements from '' Freedom Fighters: The Ray''. The season was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 14, 2018. The series was renewed for a seventh season on April 2, 2018.

Episodes

Cast and characters

Main

* Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen / Green Arrow *

as John Diggle / Spartan / Green Arrow * Willa Holland as Thea Queen / Speedy * Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak / Overwatch * Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt / Mister Terrific * Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramirez / Wild Dog *

as Dinah Drake / Black Canary * Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance / Black Siren *

as Quentin Lance

Recurring

*Jack Moore as William Clayton *

Kathleen Gati Kathleen Gati (born 13 August 1957) is a US-based Canadian actress. She is known for portraying Liesl Obrecht on the ABC daytime soap opera ''General Hospital''. She appeared on the television series ''Leverage'' in 2009. Career At the age of ...

as Raisa *

* Sydelle Noel as

Samanda Watson ''Arrow'' is an American superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, a costumed crime-fighter created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, and is set in ...

* Venus Terzo as Elisa Schwartz * Michael Emerson as

*Tobias Jelinek as

Sheck ''Arrow (TV series), Arrow'' is an American Superhero fiction, superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, a costumed crime-fighter created by Mort We ...

as Vincent Sobel / Vigilante *

Evan Roderick Evan Roderick Anderson (born 29 June 1995) is a Canadian actor and former ice hockey player. Life and career Roderick was born and raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia. He has an older brother, Stuart. Evan first became interested in per ...

Nick Anastas ''Arrow'' is an American superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow, a costumed crime-fighter created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, and is set in ...

as Ricardo Diaz / Dragon *

Pej Vahdat Pejman "Pej" Vahdat ( ) is an American actor known for his role of Arastoo Vaziri in ''Bones'' from 2009 to 2017. In 2022, Vahdat was cast as Dex Dexter for the fifth season of the CW reboot series ''Dynasty''. Career Before his acting caree ...

as Sam Armand *Eliza Faria as Zoe Ramirez * Tina Huang as

Kimberly Hill Kimberly Hill (born November 30, 1989) is an American former professional volleyball player who played as an outside hitter for the United States women's national volleyball team. Hill won gold with the national team at the 2014 World Champions ...

Guest

Production

Development

On January 8, 2017,

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

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,

, Willa Holland, Emily Bett Rickards, Echo Kellum and

return from previous seasons as Oliver Queen, John Diggle,

, Curtis Holt and Quentin Lance. Rick Gonzalez and

, who recurred in the fifth season as

and

respectively were promoted to the principal cast for the sixth season. 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 Fundamental may refer to: * Foundation of reality * Fundamental frequency, as in music or phonetics, often referred to as simply a "fundamental" * Fundamentalism, the belief in, and usually the strict adherence to, the simple or "fundamental" idea ...

". 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 A season finale (British English: last in the series; Australian English: season final) is the final episode of a season of a television program. This is often the final episode to be produced for a few months or longer, and, as such, will try to ...

. Former series regulars Manu Bennett and Josh Segarra returned as

Slade Wilson Slade are an English rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British Hit Singles ...

and Adrian Chase respectively in a guest capacity.

Colin Donnell Colin Donnell (born October 9, 1982) is an American actor and singer best known for his performances as Billy Crocker in ''Anything Goes'', Tommy Merlyn in The CW television series ''Arrow'', Scotty Lockhart on the Showtime drama '' The Affair'' ...

, also a former series regular, returned for two different roles as a guest: the Earth-X version of

Tommy Merlyn Thomas Merlyn is a fictional supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics related to Green Arrow. Created by Judd Winick and Freddie E. Williams II, he is the son of Arthur King / Malcolm Merlyn / Dark Archer. Colin Donnell po ...

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. Oliver's Green Arrow suit from the fifth season is retained in the sixth without any changes. 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

. The episode "

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

" re-uses archive footage of

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man (song), Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo ...

from his concert of August 4, 2015, at the

Nassau Coliseum Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (or simply the Nassau Coliseum) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, east of New York City. The Long Island venue is approximately east of the eastern limits of the New York City Borough of ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, performing the song "

No Man's Land No man's land is waste or unowned land or an uninhabited or desolate area that may be under dispute between parties who leave it unoccupied out of fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dump ...

". 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 Mark Pedowitz is the former chairman and CEO of The CW. He replaced Dawn Ostroff in 2011, who had been the Head of Entertainment since the network's inception in 2006. Pedowitz oversaw all aspects of The CW, including programming, sales, marketing ...

officially announced plans for a four-show Arrowverse

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

event, crossing over episodes of the television series '' Supergirl'', ''

'', '' Legends of Tomorrow'', and ''Arrow''. The crossover, ''

Crisis on Earth-X "Crisis on Earth-X" is the fourth Arrowverse Crossover (fiction), crossover event, featuring episodes of the live-action television series ''Supergirl (TV series), Supergirl'', ''Arrow (TV series), Arrow'', ''The Flash (2014 TV series), The Flash ...

'', 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. Patrick Sabongui, who recurs as David Singh on ''The Flash'', made a guest appearance in the episode " All for Nothing", 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

Broadcast

The season began airing in the United States on

on October 12, 2017, and completed its 23-episode run on May 17, 2018.

Home media

The season was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

on August 14, 2018 with special features including the fourth annual

Arrowverse crossover event The Arrowverse is an American superhero media franchise and a shared universe that is centered on various interconnected television series based on DC Comics superhero characters, primarily airing on The CW as well as web series on CW Seed. ...

titled "

". It began streaming on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

in May 2018, soon after the season finale aired.

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 64% approval rating for the sixth season, with an average rating of 6.86/10 based on 7 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Arrow'' sixth season deals with the literal fallout from the explosion in season five's finale and promises a drastic change in direction for the series." Jesse Schedeen of ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' rated the entire season 6.7 out of 10, saying, "''Arrow'' sixth season may not qualify as the show's worst, but only because it improved a great deal in its final two months. Prior to that, the season squandered most of the potential afforded by Season 5, failing to balance its many characters and languishing under a disappointingly bland villain. It's good that the show eventually regained its footing, but there's no reason things should have gone so far off the rails in the first place."

Ratings

Accolades

, - ! scope="row" rowspan="8" , 2018 , rowspan="2" , Leo Awards , Best Cinematography Dramatic Series , data-sort-value="Robson, Corey" , Corey Robson (" Who Are You?") , , , - , Best Stunt Coordination Dramatic Series , data-sort-value="Braconnier, Curtis" , Curtis Braconnier, Eli Zagoudakis ("

Fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

") , , , - ,

People's Choice Awards The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls until ...

, The Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show of 2018 , data-sort-value="Arrow" , ''Arrow'' , , , - ,

Saturn Awards The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...

, Best Superhero Adaptation Television Series , data-sort-value="Arrow" , ''Arrow'' , , , - , rowspan="4" ,

Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards is an annual awards show that airs on the Fox television network. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, film, sports, television, fashion, social media, and more, voted by viewers living in the United S ...

, Choice Action TV Actor , data-sort-value="Amell, Stephen" , Stephen Amell , , , - , Choice Action TV Actress , data-sort-value="Rickards, Emily Bett" , Emily Bett Rickards , , , - , Choice TV Ship , data-sort-value="Amell, Stephen and Emily Bett Rickards" , Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards , , , - , Choice Action TV Show , data-sort-value="Arrow" , ''Arrow'' , ,

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Arrowverse Arrow (TV series) seasons 2017 American television seasons 2018 American television seasons