Paul Blackthorne leaving Arrow at the end of season 6

Paul Blackthorne

As it turns out, Willa Holland is not the only cast member from Arrow who is exiting the series this year — longtime cast member Paul Blackthorne is doing the same.

Blackthorne, who played the character of Quentin Lance from the very beginning of the series, is going to be officially exiting at the end of the season. This does not mean necessarily that the character is getting killed off (after all, Holland’s Thea Queen is still out there); it just means that the show is moving forward and the same goes for him.

While it’s going to be sad to see Arrow without one of its strongest and most-consistent performers, it does feel now like the time is right. Quentin Lance is someone who has been through all sorts of unspeakable hell over the course of the past few years in between losing Sara, Sara coming back, but then losing Laurel. He’s had this story of desperation (at times) with Black Siren this year. In the end, the timing just feels right for him to be saying farewell now. We like to imagine Quentin being somewhere that will allow him to have a little bit of peace, and where he also doesn’t have anywhere near the same sort of demons that he did in Star City.

Of course, with all of this said it would certainly be nice if there are some other opportunities coming up where we could actually see this character again. Think in terms of milestones, crossovers, or a potential series finale down the line. We like to think of Arrow as an enormous family and Blackthorne is a huge part of it — he brought so much heart and humanity to this role and also kept the show grounded during what were otherwise some very serious times.

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