Marc Guggenheim teases darker stories for Emily Bett Rickards‘ Felicity in ‘Arrow’ season 5
Emily Bett Rickards‘ tech genius is now the center of focus of the latest spoiler/preview of the second half of Arrow. Now in the fifth season, Felicity has undergone a lot of changes and her family has taken a seat on the back burner.
Arrow EP Marc Guggenheim spoke on this at The CW’s TCA presentation, referencing her father, The Calculator (Tom Amandes) as the plot of Oliver (Stephen Amell) being duped by Prometheus into killing Felicity’s new boyfriend, SCPD Detective Billy Malone (Tyler Ritter).
“We talked about that. We love Tom Amandes and we love that character, but there was a real appetite on my part and Wendy [Mericle]’s part — we had done her dad last year and we’d definitely love to bring him back and we’d love to bring back Charlotte as Donna, but we were kind of craving new characters. We were craving a new story, something we haven’t done before.”
Guggenheim says Felicity’s turn will tie into the Season 5 theme of legacy, and it’s probably not going to be what fans will expect: “As with all things Arrow, it’s not initially what you think it is and it will ultimately relate to the overall season theme of legacy, but in this case something very specific to Felicity.”
Guggenheim promised they only planned to take “her darkness” to a place that’s “appropriate for the character.”
“This is something I was talking to the writers about in the writers’ room — Felicity is a wonderful character because she brings some light into the show. So it’s a darker — it’s an edgier story for Felicity, but at the same time, it’s still Felicity. You want to keep the character.”
Billy’s tragic demise is obviously a heavy weight on Felicity’s heart, her new arc is the sum of all the hardships she’s experienced over the years, especially Havenrock, which Guggenheim says is “is a big component” they’ll be addressing again in episode 5.11.
“It’s the sum of a bunch of stuff, and Billy was sort of the final straw. It’s also the sum of the fact that Felicity’s been living in this darker world for the last four-plus years now and one of the things we’re exploring is how much what Oliver and Diggle (David Ramsey) and Roy (Colton Haynes) and Laurel (Katie Cassidy) have been doing as vigilantes affected her and affected her way of thinking about things.”
Arrow returns to The CW on Wednesday, January 25th.
Prometheus during season 5 of “Arrow”
