Last night’s Arrow installment “Broken Arrow” brought plenty of bodies and bloodshed, though at least one major character departed with the suggestion that they wouldn’t return, at least on a regular basis. Now, Arrow bosses have confirmed that a major character of the series won’t return as a regular in Season 4, but may drop back in a few weeks from now.

You’re warned of both “Broken Arrow” spoilers and Arrow Season 4 spoilers from here on out, but it looks as though Roy surviving his Iron Heights stabbing won’t do many favors for Colton Haynes fans. Following the character’s Starling City departure for greener (redder?) pastures, Arrow bosses Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim confirmed to Deadline that Haynes had always intended to leave the series behind after two seasons as a series regular:

We made a two-season deal that had a clock on it, we always knew that. When he was coming off Teen Wolf, we described the role to him, and we agreed to do it for a couple of years. At that particular moment, he had a lot of opportunities to do things, and we’re lucky he chose us. He brought a lot of notoriety and viewership to Arrow when we were growing, and the show wouldn’t be the show it is without him.

Haynes’ departure as Roy brought culmination to the recent arc that saw Oliver Queen’s identity as the Arrow exposed to Starling City by Ra’s al Ghul, for which Roy elected to take the fall by turning himself in with a green hood. Oliver vowed to set him free by any means necessary, though Roy insisted that he needed to make up for a Season 2 incident in which he accidentally killed a police officer under the influence of Slade Wilson’s Mirakuru.

Both Berlanti and Guggenheim also relayed that they’d never directly thought to kill the character off, wanting to leave an open end fpr the future generation of DC superheroes. Not only that, but Deadline also confirms that Roy will return for one of the remaining Season 3 episodes, while talks have occurred regarding appearances on The Flash or the proposed Atom teamup spinoff. As to how Roy’s exit will influence the final hours of the season, says Berlanti:

The end of this season is very much a punctuation mark on the first three seasons. Third season will feel like the end of a trilogy, with elements and pieces coming together. We are heading into a big, epic, climactic battle, and I’m not not going to give away who is going to make it. Everything will be changed after this season.

Guggenheim also added of the fourth year that “we have planned something cool and radical to open next season,” but will Arrow be the same without Colton Haynes as a series regular? What might the remaining episodes of Season 3 lay out, and how will the DC drama look to reinvent itself in Season 4, potentially with two other spinoffs on the air?

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