Olicity Lives! Emily Bett Rickards to Return for Arrow's Finale

Oliver Queen will soon don his hood and bow one last time, and it looks like the love of his life will be by his side.

Emily Bett Rickards, who left the CW series last year and was not contracted for the current final shortened season, will be returning to the superhero show for its final episode, according to a tweet by series lead Stephen Amell.

There’ll be a lot of news coming out about our final episode over the next few months. I prefer when you hear it from us. Welcome back Emily. pic.twitter.com/YlVpgoPWLi

— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) November 1, 2019

Executive producer Marc Guggenheim also confirmed the news.

I prefer it, too. 😜 We couldn't be happier or more thrilled. No other way to do our finale. You'll find our about more old friends returning in the coming weeks... https://t.co/19sdtY6TrH

— Marc Guggenheim (@mguggenheim) November 1, 2019

Rickards was introduced in the series' third episode in 2012. Her character, Felicity Smoak, was originally meant to appear in just one episode, but she soon became an integral part of OTA (original team Arrow) and one half of the show's OTP. The actress' decision to leave the show with just 10 episodes left stunned fans.

Amell likely made the announcement now because the series finale started filming this week in Vancouver, which means the actress will probably be spotted on set within the next few days. Vancouver paparazzi have a history of spoiling major guest stars and events on the show (including Oliver and Felicity’s impromptu wedding in the season six crossover).

When we last saw Felicity, she was in the future and had been separated from a presumed dead Oliver for 20 years. She asked the multiverse-hopping Monitor (played by La Monica Garrett) to take her through a portal. “Where I’m taking you, there is no return,” he warned her, to which she replied “I’ve been waiting a very long time to see him. I’m ready,” implying she was going to be reunited with Oliver.

This season, Felicity has been gone but not forgotten, with frequent mentions, flashbacks and reminders of the character. Oliver in the present day has been forced to leave Felicity and their baby daughter Mia in hiding while he does the Monitor’s bidding, jumping across Earths and collecting items to help in the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths (this year’s crossover event). According to the Monitor, Oliver is destined to die in the crisis but he can help prevent the destruction of the multiverse before that happens.

However, there is increasing evidence that the grim future we've been shown might not be set in stone. In a recent episode [SPOILER ALERT!!] an adult Mia and William (Oliver's son) were sucked back in time to the present day. Is it possible their time-hopping (as well as the events of Crisis) will change the timeline and result in Olicity getting a happy ending -- one that doesn't involve them being separated for 20 years? Fingers crossed!

Arrow will wrap its eight-season run in early 2020.