WARNING: Spoilers for Arrow’s series finale
Arrow ended Oliver Queen’s (Stephen Amell) story after eight seasons, but may have started a new one for John Diggle (David Ramsey) as possibly the Arrowverse’s first Green Lantern. Since the beginning of the Green Arrow drama, viewers of the popular CW series that began a massive DC franchise had speculated about Diggle’s potential role down the line. With the characterization of Diggle bearing similarities to John Stewart, there were hopes in having Ramsey’s character be infused with the Green Lantern mythology. In the last few seasons, the creators behind Arrow have been slowly teasing the possibility only to increase it in the last two seasons.
Prior to the tenth and final episode of Arrow, the actor promised that the series finale would have a massive pay-off that would reward long-time fans. In the finale titled “Fadeout”, Diggle’s final scene in the Arrowverse drama potentially sets him on the path of a new adventure. With him and Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) moving to Metropolis with the kids, Arrow’s final hour came with one last surprise for the long-time hero. As he is busy with the move to Metropolis, a meteor suddenly crashes from the skies near Diggle.
But as Diggle walks over to look at what had landed, it was neither a spaceship or a person that waited for him. Instead, Diggle discovers a mysterious box that somehow was powerful enough to knock him back at the moving van. In his final moment of Arrow’s series finale, Diggle opens the box, and while viewers don’t see what’s inside, a big green light begins to shine through the box. While the name is never spoken nor is the ring shown, the series finale gave Arrow viewers the closest thing to confirmation of Diggle’s possible future as a Green Lantern.
Is Diggle Now Green Lantern In The Arrowverse?
With Diggle’s final scene being left on an ambiguous note, does Oliver’s closest ally actually become the Emerald Knight? In that literal moment, he doesn’t as Diggle will have to figure out what this box is and why it came to him. Given that it literally crashed nearby him, the mystery box was evidently meant to find Diggle. The Green Lantern mythology has only been teased through a handful of Easter eggs throughout the Arrowverse’s run. From a brief glimpse of Hal Jordan in Arrow season 4 to John Wesley Shipp’s Flash in Elseworlds confirming that Diggle on Earth-90 was a ring-wielding hero, little about the Green Lantern Corps has been explored.
A post-mortem interview with Ramsey and executive producer Marc Guggenheim confirms that it was meant to be left on an unfinished note. For the time being, Ramsey told The Hollywood Reporter that it’s a “we’ll still see, believe it or not,” situation. Given how the two talents stressed that it’s a matter for DC/Warner Bros. to determine where the cliffhanger is going for Diggle. Ramsey’s character, who began as an original player for Arrow, has become of great importance for not just the Arrowverse, but the overall DC brand. It didn’t take long until the comics incorporated Diggle into the Green Arrow canon.
With the Arrowverse not going anyway any time soon, Diggle’s time is far from over with Arrow’s conclusion. With a total of six (seven, if Green Arrow and the Canaries gets picked-up) DC series for next season, Ramsey has a big number of options as to where Diggle could pop up next. The character will be making a guest-spot on The Flash when it returns on Tuesday, February 4, reaffirming that Diggle’s time with the Arrowverse will continue.
What Diggle’s Future As Green Lantern Could Be
In the scenario where the Arrowverse is fully allowed to pursue a storyline of Diggle as a Green Lantern, there are a number of possibilities for that. During the final minutes of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the new Multiverse was established after Oliver literally rebooted the Arrowverse. One of the new worlds, designated as Earth-12, revealed shots of the Green Lantern Corps on Oa. While it was footage from 2011’s Green Lantern movie, the meaning behind that glimpse was something far bigger. Greg Berlanti, who shepherds all the Arrowverse properties, is developing a Green Lantern series for HBO Max, with details mostly kept under wrap.
Other than the series being centered on two Earth-Lanterns and Sinestro, the project is shrouded in mystery. But what the crossover did was establish that the HBO Max series officially exists within the Arrowverse Multiverse. With Diggle’s cliffhanger moment in the Arrow series finale, the Green Lantern show is an option for Ramsey. But should WarnerMedia and Berlanti choose to keep Diggle in The CW realm, the final episode may have already foreshadowed another possibility. The Arrowverse is adding a new series to its lineup this fall with Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch reprising their roles as Clark Kent and Lois Lane in Superman and Lois.
The project, which was announced to be in development last fall, got an early straight-to-series order ahead of the Crisis on Infinite Earths finale. With all the shows now set on the same Earth, known as Earth-Prime, the characters now have an easier time moving around and engaging with one another. As Diggle and his family were on their way to move to Metropolis, Superman and Lois could be a promising option to explore a Green Lantern story for Ramsey’s character next season. Furthermore, that would bring the Arrowverse one step closer to having a Green Lantern on the Justice League team, which would be something that even the DCEU hasn’t done yet. It would be a true achievement for the franchise.
With the ongoing shows still having months of episodes left to air, anything is possible by the time the Arrowverse shows wrap their seasons in May. Regardless if it’s a story that will have a long-time or fast build-up, Diggle’s Green Lantern future is more or less happening thanks to Arrow’s series finale.
