Did 'Arrow' Actress Emily Bett Rickards Just Confirm Felicity Survives The Lian Yu Explosion?

The ending of Arrow's fifth season left only Oliver and his son standing while fans were left to wonder who would survive the massive explosion from Adrian Chase's final attack against Oliver. With bombs set all around the island, there are bound to be casualties. And while there are several characters we wouldn't miss — like Talia Al Ghul and Digger Harkness — there are others we couldn't imagine the show without, such as any member of original Team Arrow.

Fortunately, there may be good news for one of those characters. In a recent interview with TVLine, Arrow executive producer Wendy Mericle mentioned that Helix, the uber-dark hacktivist group that disappeared after freeing Cayden James, isn't quite finished with the Arrowverse:

"[Helix’s status is very much] a dangling thread, and we don’t like to leave those hanging around. It’d be a great, sort of built-in story for Felicity to revisit these people, who are not very happy with her, let’s be honest. We left that open-ended on purpose, for sure.”

Mericle's mention of a built-in story for Felicity Smoak, as well as how that portion of the plot was left open-ended, leads fans to believe Felicity has to have survived the explosion on Lian Yu. The co-showrunner's discussion of a storyline for Felicity wouldn't be happening if the IT specialist were one of the casualties on the island.

Adding to the certainty that Felicity will be returning in Season 6 is Emily Bett Rickards's recent appearance at a Heroes and Villains Fan Fest in London. She answered a question about the future of Smoak Technologies, which we saw in the episode of Legends of Tomorrow when the team traveled to the distant future:

"We're working towards Smoak Technologies, I can't say when but I'd say that's going to happen."

We all know, of course, there won't be a Smoak Technologies without Felicity. Besides her crooked father, she is the only Smoak with the knowledge to run an IT company. So knowing the show is headed in the direction of a company named after Felicity, it's a fairly solid way of saying Oliver's ex-fiancee survived.

We'll have to wait until October to find out who else survived the disaster, but until then, at least we can be semi-confident that Emily Bett Rickards will be returning to Season 6 of Arrow.

[Source: TVLine]