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The Arrowverse shocks with its biggest death ever in Night 1 of Crisis on Infinite Earths

By Trent Moore
Crisis on Infinite Earths

In case it wasn’t already clear, the stakes have never been higher than this. The CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event killed off a major star in Night 1, and it’s insane to think there are still four more hours to go.

Spoilers ahead for Night 1 of Crisis on Infinite Earths, The CW’s latest Arrowverse crossover!

Oliver Queen’s death had been revealed last season, but it’s fair to same pretty much no one expected it to come so soon. That’s right — Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, is dead. Oliver died in a battle on Supergirl’s world to try and stave off the antimatter wave to allow more time for the people of that Earth to evacuate to Earth-1. Oliver stops The Monitor from zapping him away to safety and keeps fighting until he has nothing left, charing into sudden death. His efforts saved the lives of millions, we’re told, but the battle cost Oliver his life.

The OG star of the Arrowverse takes his last breaths on a table among his friends and fellow heroes, telling his future-daughter Mia to make sure and find Felicity once all this chaos has come to an end. Producer Marc Guggenheim told Entertainment Weekly they wanted to do something unexpected with Oliver’s death, especially since fans knew it’d be coming. Just, you know, most expected it for the big finale in January.

Crisis on Infinite Earths Oliver death

“So if Oliver dying isn’t the surprise, what is the surprise? And the timing of him dying, because I think we kinda figured the audience is expecting that Oliver would die in the climax in the fifth hour,” he said. “So if we went in the opposite direction and killed him off at the end of Hour 1, we accomplish two things: Hopefully we do surprise the audience. That’s absolutely the intention. But we also really establish the stakes that going into the next four hours, ‘Wow, if Oliver Queen can die, then no one is safe.’”

It’s safe to say that surprise almost certainly worked. But don’t worry too much, Green Arrow fans. Before his death, Oliver passed a new Green Arrow suit on to his daughter Mia, telling her she needs to keep the mantle alive in case he doesn’t make it. Well, it looks like that time has come. It also seems those final Arrow episodes will happen (apparently) without Oliver.

Crisis on Infinite Earths continues Monday and Tuesday night on The CW.