Arrow Boss Says Season 7 Will Still Give You Plenty of Olicity Feels

It wouldn't be Arrow without some good, old Olicity angst, and Season 7 promises to provide it by putting a bunch of prison walls between Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) this year.

While Oliver toils away in the Iron Heights prison, Felicity and William (Jack Moore) will be adjusting to life in the witness protection program as the FBI continues to hunt down Diaz (Kirk Acevedo), and to say they're adjusting to their new lives poorly is an understatement.

"They are not adapting well," showrunner Beth Schwartz says. "They're both pretty miserable. Felicity is away from her husband, William's away from his father, and their family and their city and their real lives, so it's not going well."

Having to give up your identity is actually one of the prevalent themes of the premiere. While Oliver struggles to embrace his new identity as a compliant and non-confrontational prisoner, the rest of the team will be adjusting to their new lives without vigilante masks -- some better than others. Felicity and William's toughest obstacle will obviously be living without Oliver though, which is heartbreaking, and not just because we won't be getting the usual amount of Olicity scenes in each episode. Don't worry though, Schwartz assures us that they've found other ways to give you Olicity feels.

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"We obviously thought about that, just in terms of storytelling, it would be great if both of them are fighting for the same thing," Schwartz says. "So even if we don't physically see them together, their stories are pretty much -- their goals are the same. So they connect without physically connecting, which I think is really cool because they're both fighting for their families, so you don't need to see them together to get that connection."

It will be a new obstacle for Oliver and Felicity's relationship, for sure -- which is really saying something at this point in the series -- but we're sure they're up to the task. All the same, here's hoping they don't have to wait too long to connect physically. Give the people what they want!

Arrow returns Oct. 15 at 8/7c on The CW.

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