Colton Hayes leaving Arrow as series regular (again) before season 8

While it’s possible that Colton Haynes will turn up on Arrow again before the end of the final season, it won’t be as a series regular.

Speaking via Green Arrow TV, show executive producer Beth Schwartz confirmed the news, while also noting that there are hopes to have him back at some point across the final season.

So why not bring back Haynes as a regular again? For starters, he was barely a regular in the first place in season 7, only appearing in a certain percentage of the episodes and disappearing for long stretches of time. It’s also hard to continue to have such a big cast — Arrow is also losing Emily Bett Rickards, but they have also promoted a number of the actors featured heavily in some of the flash-forward stories.

We do hope that Colton returns, if for no other reason than filling some of the holes in his backstory. There are still many questions out there about both Roy and also Thea, who we’re also hoping returns at some point before the series comes to a close. Willa Holland departed the series some time back, and while it would’ve been perfect to bring her back last season, that didn’t happen.

For some more Arrow video discussion, be sure to check out what we’ve got below all about the season 7 finale! Once you do that, subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and check back soon for more news.

The biggest issue that could come with resolving Roy’s story and filling some of the gaps is strictly time. There aren’t going to be that many opportunities to feature anyone with just ten episodes! That’s without even considering the fact that the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover is going to be in there as well, and will count for at least one episode of the overall Arrow order.

Things are going to get crazy for Arrow in the final season, and we do recognize that there are some loose ends that may not get tied up entirely. We should just be happy with the fact that we are getting eight seasons of Arrow in the first place — it was never guaranteed early on in the run that we’d get anywhere close to this!

What do you want to see moving forward on Arrow season 8?

Are you bummed that Colton will not be a series regular? Be sure to share in the comments. (Photo: The CW.)