Arrow season 6: John Barrowman talks further on departure

Even before the finale, it was already clear that John Barrowman would not be a part of Arrow season 6. Now, it’s clear as to why.

In a new video on Facebook (see below), Barrowman confirmed his departure from the entire Arrow-verse, saying that he was both “sad” and “upset” about the decision. It sounds like it was more of a creative decision than a departure he wanted, but he is eternally grateful to the fans of the show for their support. His journey has been a fairly incredible one, given that he went from being the Big Bad of the first season to a character some people started to have empathy for thanks to the love of his biological daughter Thea. He was still a villain — look at what he did as a part of the Legion of Doom on the second season of Legends of Tomorrow — but he did still manage to have a powerful ending to his story as he sacrificed himself on Liam Yu to save the life of his daughter and others.

The thing here about Arrow and this universe is that in the end, you do never say never. These are shows with timelines and multiple earths, so it’s possible Barrowman turns up at some point down the line. It just doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen next year. Sometimes, a little bit of distance can be a great thing for a character and helps to bring them back to what originally made them great. Think along the likes of Slade Wilson, a guy who was great during the second season but totally botched by the writers in season 3. (Luckily, such a thing never happened with Merlyn, who remained pretty consistently awesome throughout his run on the show.)

More than likely, there are going to be some new characters introduced as Arrow enters a new chapter for the upcoming sixth season, including potentially a new Big Bad. However, nothing is altogether known about that right now. It’s kind of hard to speculate on such matters when the most-recent finale ended with an epic explosion that (in theory) could have killed off the majority of the main cast.

Alas, here’s to one last toast of John Barrowman, who was epic through much of what he gave us on these shows.

Feel free to share your thoughts on John’s departure in the comments below. (Photo: The CW.)