Emily Bett Rickards has expressed willingness to return as Felicity Smoak in a potential Arrow revival during an appearance on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast. The actress, who shocked fans by departing the superhero drama ahead of its final season in 2019, revealed she would “probably” reprise her role if given the opportunity. Her unexpected exit forced producers to rewrite the show’s eighth and final season without its female lead, with Rickards only returning for the series finale in January 2020. The possibility of her revisiting the character comes nearly six years after her departure from the series that launched the Arrowverse, an ambitious TV universe that officially ended with Superman & Lois in December 2024.
“I want to give Felicity her flowers, to be honest,” Rickards said on the podcast. “There are things that I wish that Felicity stood up for more. I love Felicity [so] I’m not doing it for Arrow or really the fans. I’d be doing it for Felicity. And then everybody else gets it just as a side effect!” This revealing statement suggests her motivation stems from unresolved feelings about the character’s development rather than fan service or nostalgia for the series that ended over five years ago.
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“I think she got a little lost in the later seasons, and I wish I could have changed that for her…but I wasn’t a writer,” Rickards added while reflecting on her seven-season run with a mix of gratitude and regret. When asked if she had voiced these concerns to the production team during her time on the show, the actress acknowledged that while she did speak up, she believes she “would be clearer now” about her issues and desires for the character. These comments provide new context for her unexpected departure, suggesting creative differences may have influenced her decision to leave before the show’s conclusion.
The Legacy of Felicity Smoak and Arrow‘s Definitive Ending
Felicity Smoak began as a recurring character in Arrow‘s first season before becoming a series regular, the love interest for Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), and ultimately the title character’s wife. Her departure at the end of season seven meant she appeared in only one of the ten episodes in the show’s final season. The series finale, titled “Fadeout,” featured Felicity reuniting with Oliver in a “paradise dimension” in the year 2040, providing closure to their relationship after she raised their daughter Mia.
This finale sequence was particularly significant because it was written before Rickards had agreed to return. As series co-creator Marc Guggenheim revealed to ComicBook in January 2020, “We didn’t know if Emily would return to the show. The challenge was, how do you tee up a potential appearance in season eight, but not require, or not owe an appearance in season eight.” Guggenheim also shared that the final scene came to him during meditation, stating, “I came out of the meditation with the entire scene in my head, like literally word for word, exactly as you just watched it.”
The producers considered this scene so essential to the series’ conclusion that Guggenheim recalled telling executive producer Beth Schwartz, “I wrote the final scene, I’ve got to send it to you. Of course the big question was, is Emily coming back to be in it? We were like, well, now she really has to, because I really love the scene.” Fortunately for fans of the Olicity relationship, Rickards did return to film this pivotal moment, providing emotional closure to a central relationship that had defined much of the series.
The ending of the Arrowverse with Superman & Lois in December 2024 marked the conclusion of a television universe that spanned 12 years, seven shows, and pioneered the concept of an interconnected superhero television universe years before similar approaches were attempted in other franchises. While this definitive conclusion makes any revival unlikely, Rickards’ comments demonstrate her continued emotional connection to a character that evolved significantly from its initial conception as a one-off IT specialist to become one of the most influential figures in the series.
Arrow is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
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The post Emily Bett Rickards Wants to Reprise Arrow’s Felicity After Controversial Exit (Could It Happen?) appeared first on ComicBook.com.
