Arrow shoots scenes for THE FINAL SEASON PREMIERE

THIS BLOG POST IS FOR "ARROW" SEASON 8 EPISODE 1 titled "Starling City".
If you have not seen the episode, and do not want to see or read possible spoilers about it prior to seeing it, do not continue reading the article or viewing the photos below.
 
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Yesterday I caught Arrow filming in a new studio that is literally known as "The Fortress". I hd been there a couple times in the past, but was unaware of why shows were using it so much,as I assumed it was just some business building that they were using for a day. But instead, it is 1 of the new crop of little 1 off studios across the Lower Mainland that has popped up in the past few years. This former bank has the structural integrity to withstand some of the film industries more tougher stunts to pull off, as I was told yesterday while there, they have even crashed a helicopter into the roof of it.

On this day, the Arrow cast and crew were using it for scenes for their 1st episode of their last season. Obviously because of the fact everything was shot inside this structure, nothing about the specific scenes is known.

But some things are known about who was there.
Through out the morning & early afternoon, and late evening (I left for a few hours after lunch break) a variety of cast were seen by myself. Stephen Amell was walking to & from the set in half of his Green Arrow costume, and stopped to meet fans several times throughout the day. I also saw Rick Gonzalez at lunch, and briefly got to meet Katherime McNamara for my first time at a set. But the "I wasnt expecting to see you so soon" moment of the day came as former Arrow star, turned Chicago Med star, now back for quick drop in on Arrow, Colin Donnell. An article had come out just a couple hours before seeing him saying he would be back, and lo & behold there he was. But Tommy Merlyn looked a little different than the one we used to know, sporting a full beard. Oh that reminds me, 1 other thing I saw that I can not quite put my finger on what it means yet is... during lunch 2 stunt men in Green Arrow attire came out, 1 looking like how Oliver did, the other, had a big fake black beard on. make of that what you want. I have theories, but I wont post theories here.

We also saw a blond girl go in at one point that seemed to be wearing a mask. The person that was there with me when they went in thought it could be Katie Cassidy, and I was unable to confirm if it was her or not, but you can try to judge for yourself by the pics I added below. That said, I did hear two people for the cast referenced by crew while I was there. Katie Cassidy being one, the other was "Josh" who could be Josh Segarra, as he was also announced as returning in the same article as Colin was mentioned in.

When I returned later. Some fans were now there, and they pieced together to us what they had seen while we were gone. The only actors they had seen while we were gone were Stephen again, aaaaaaand John Barrowman? Now I was not there to confirm if what they say tey saw is a fact, but the fan I was talking to was well versed in his Arrowverse knowledge, so I feel confident he was not mistaken.

Could the returns for Colin, Josh and others be Crisis On Infinite Earths related? I guess we will have to wait and see.

At the end of the evening, we saw 3 cast leave as Andrea Sixtos, Joseph David Jones and Katherine McNamara all left together, and shortly behind them we saw the director of the episode, James Bamford also leave.

Arrow season 8 will premiere in October on The CW in the U.S.

For other behind the scene blog posts of Arrow go HERE
For Arrow autographs gallery go HERE

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