Arrow ended an era with the Season 5 finale back in May, and the final moments may or may not have killed off a bunch of characters, so relationships are bound to be different when the show returns for Season 6. As it turns out, according to star Stephen Amell, there's one dynamic that will especially affected by the finale moving forward: Oliver and his son. CinemaBlend's own Adam Holmes was in attendance at a recent panel with Stephen Amell, who had this to say about Oliver and William in Season 6:
I'm excited that not only are they going to learn about having the father/son relationship, I think we're going to explore that in Season 6, but [William] also knows that Oliver is the Green Arrow. So there's a lot of interesting layers and dynamics. I'm just excited to have to teach him a lesson. As a father, Oliver will definitely try to be better than what he's been as a person... So hopefully he can be a good example for William.
Oliver and William were the only two good guys of Arrow Season 5 who we can confirm escaped the events of the Season 5 finale mostly unscathed. William may be in for a lifetime of therapy and Oliver may have more brooding in his future, but they were alive, with an unmasked Oliver hugging William while Lian Yu exploded. Going by Stephen Amell's comments at the Portland Heroes & Villains Fan Fest, father and son will spend a lot more time together in Season 6 than they have so far.
Given that William's mom was one of the characters who may have been blown to side character smithereens on Lian Yu, we can only hope that she didn't have to die for Oliver and William to bond. Something tells me Oliver should ease into fatherhood rather than jump right into the deep end. For everybody's sake, we should probably cross our fingers that Samantha made it to safety before the island exploded.
The Season 5 finale actually got Oliver over some of his lingering father issues as he faced what his dad did back when the Queen's Gambit first went down, meaning that he he may be in a more emotionally stable place for fatherhood in Season 6. He thoroughly bungled fatherhood back in Season 4 when he first lied about having a kid and then pretty much set the kid up to be kidnapped by Damien Darhk, so there's really nowhere to go but up for Oliver from now on when it comes to fatherhood. Stephen Amell seems pretty sure that actually acting like a father will force Oliver to be more responsible than he has been since we first saw him back in the pilot.
Oliver may need help from his pals in Star City when it comes to fatherhood. Diggle has a son of his own (since poor baby Sara was erased by Flashpoint). Even though John Jr. will be significantly younger than William, Digg still has experience with raising a kid. Also, he's Diggle, and Diggle's advice is almost always good. I can definitely see Thea embracing her role as aunt, and Felicity's only objection in the dreadful Season 4 baby mama drama was to Oliver's handling of the situation. Hopefully he'll have the support system he needs to not make a mess of his new role as a father.
Arrow will return to The CW this fall. Check out our breakdown of what we know so far about Arrow Season 6, and swing by our summer TV premiere schedule for what you can watch the pass the time.
