Why THAT Arrow Character Wasn't in the Crossover

She was probably practicing shooting arrow's into people's backs.

By Joshua Yehl

While the big Arrowverse “Invasion!” crossover featured more superheroes than you can shake an Nth Metal mace at, there was one important Arrow character notably absent: Evelyn Sharp, aka Artemis.

According to executive producer Marc Guggenheim, Artemis wasn't included for a reason, and it had something to do with last week's cliffhanger.

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Arrow and the “Invasion!” crossover!

Madison McLaughlin as Evelyn Sharp/Artemis on Arrow

Episode 7 of Arrow, “Vigilante,” seemed to suggest that Artemis is a mole inside Team Arrow who is working for the murderous villain Prometheus. According to Guggenheim, the concern with including her in the crossover was that having a known traitor amongst the assembled superheroes would be too distracting for viewers.

“We talked a lot about of, 'Do we have her in there?' And it felt like it was the elephant in the room," Guggenheim told members of the press following an "Invasion!" press screening. "We didn’t want it distracting, so we don’t reference it in large part because I’m not a fan of, ‘Oh, it’s too bad that Evelyn’s mom is sick this week.’ I would prefer to just whistle past the graveyard."

So while it may have struck an odd chord for viewers not to see Artemis when Cisco visited the Arrowcave and met Green Arrow’s allies, it was done on purpose to avoid raising even bigger, most complicated questions -- Is Artemis going to betray the group in the middle of the crossover? Will any of the visiting heroes discover her betrayal? Is she helping the aliens? etc. -- and instead keep the focus squarely on the invading Dominators.

For those eager to see the impact of Artemis working for Prometheus, you won’t have to wait long. Guggenheim teased that viewers will get a payoff to the cliffhanger with respect to Artemis in next week’s episode 9, “What We Leave Behind,” the Arrow midseason finale.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

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