Arrow began with the show channeling the realism of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and while it has veered away a bit from such themes, the show continues to borrow from Batman's rogue gallery. However, there's a line in a sand that the show won't cross when it comes to cherry picking from the Batman mythos. Arrow's Felicity Smoak is in serious danger, following an attack from Damien Darhk. She''s currently in the hospital, fighting for her life, however, set photos from the show's Vancouver shoot location revealed that Felicity will survive the ordeal but will need to use a wheelchair moving forward.
Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim was forced to chime in on the fan uproar, stating that there's a hallucination scene coming that may account for the wheelchair set photos. Following that statement, an Australian promo for the upcoming episode further clouded the future of Smoak. However, showrunner Wendy Mericle has finally confirmed that Felicity is not becoming the show's version of Oracle, the codename for former Batgirl Barbara Gordon after she became wheelchair bound after vicious attack from the Joker.
"That’s something we definitely talked about [doing] with Felicity in the beginning…. But yeah, it will not be Oracle. People have to tune in to see what happens."
Arrow season 4 returns from midseason hiatus on January 20th with episode 10, titled "Blood Debts".