The folks at Collider have scored an excellent interview with Arrow executive producer and writer Andrew Kreisberg as the series goes into the final four episodes of the season. This season has upped the ante in a lot of ways and there are so many things happening in each episode that it can get difficult to keep track of it all, though it’s not on a Game of Thrones level. In the interview, he talks about a few of the things going on throughout this final arc, which comes at a time as he’s producing a potential Flash series as well, which was originally going to have a bigger role in some of these episodes. Check out the full interview for more details about the final season, but definitely check out how some of those Flash characters that are in the pilot factor into things:
We did you decide to bring in some more characters from The Flash, with this episode?
KREISBERG: Originally, The Flash was going to be a backdoor pilot for Episode 20, but we were blessed with this very humbling success where those episodes were so well-received and came out so well that they said, “Make a full pilot.” We suddenly then had to make an Episode 20, which we’re always happy to do. We knew that a lot of the fans had been looking forward to seeing a little bit of The Flash in the season, and we felt obliged to fulfill that promise. And one of the fun things for the show, especially early in the season, we were constantly mentioning the particle accelerator. And then, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) coming to the show. It just felt like a fun way to bring up Barry and remember where he’s at, and give a little taste of the show. It’s a little more sci-fi than what we do on Arrow, but it felt a little bit more like you get a glimpse into what kinds of things The Flash will be up against, more than what is coming into our world. Growing up, Greg Berlanti’s favorite thing was that cross-overs between The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. I loved all of the cross-overs between Buffy and Angel. One of my favorite cross-over moments is in Angel, when Angel is Angelus and he hears the Slayer is in town. He calls Dawn and says, “Hey, is your sister there? She is? Great!” And he hands up and goes, “Damns, it’s the other one.” It was just like, “Right, they’re all in the same world.” And this felt like that to me. It wasn’t like The Flash and Arrow were teaming up together. These people work at Star Labs and they know Felicity ‘cause she’s been there. I like that. It makes the show feel lived in.
