Colton Haynes says his ‘Arrow’ role got smaller because he ‘couldn’t stand’ one of his castmates

There’s a new secret identity for Arrow fans to try to uncover. In a new memoir, Colton Haynes, who played Roy Harper/Arsenal for all eight seasons of the flagship CW superhero series, revealed that part of the reason he drastically scaled back his role in the final season was because he “couldn’t stand” working with one of his castmates. Which co-star he butted heads with is a mystery. 

Haynes details his departure from the core Arrow cast in his new memoir Miss Memory Lane, described by the publisher as “a brutally honest and moving memoir of lust, abuse, addiction, stardom, and redemption.” While discussing his time on Arrow, Haynes writes that the public reason why he stepped back from Season 8, which premiered in late 2019, was not the full truth.

"I had walked away from my full-time job on Arrow at the beginning of the year, supposedly because my contract had ended," Haynes reveals, "but it was really because I was too depressed and I couldn't stand working with one of my cast mates."

Haynes does not name the cast mate nor does he offer much in the way of hints. Arsenal did appear in Arrow’s eighth and final season, though in a much more limited capacity than he had in the initial seven. 

Elsewhere in the book, Haynes also shares some details about his departure from Teen Wolf, although that exit had to do with good ol’ fashioned contract drama — but, there were still some personality clashes, just not ones that directly involved Haynes.

"The real truth was that they didn't want to pay me the same amount as everyone else, which wasn't a lot to begin with by Hollywood standards, even though my working quote — the fee I would be paid to appear on anyone else's show — was higher than most of the cast's,” he writes. “It didn't help that I was represented by a team of people who made the Teen Wolf production's life a living hell.

“So in order to get back at my team, the production refused to pay me the standard salary,” he explains. 

Haynes left Teen Wolf at the end of the MTV series’ second season, but you can’t keep a werewolf down. He’ll be returning for Teen Wolf: The Movie on Paramount+ later this year. (Dylan O’Brien, however, will be sitting the film out.)

Looking for more horror shows like Teen Wolf? Check out Chucky, streaming on Peacock.