Kat McNamara Will Be Front and Center in Arrow's Final Season

It may be kind of a bummer thatArrow will be end after Season 8, but there's one shining spot of light amidst the darkness: Katherine McNamara, who plays Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Felicity Smoak's (Emily Bett Rickards) daughter, Mia Smoak, in the future, has officially been upped to a series regular for the final season.

TVLine first reported the news of McNamara's promotion, and as it turns out, this could be just what the final season needed. With the departure of Emily Bett Rickards in the Season 7 finale, there was a huge opening for a leading lady in this last run of episodes, and it looks like Felicity's daughter might be stepping up to fill her shoes next season. They are mighty big shoes to fill, but seeing as Mia is already well on her way to following in her father's vigilante footsteps, we're confident McNamara will deliver a killer final season for not just Mia but then entire flash-forward storyline introduced in Season 8.

And yes, we're still holding out hope for an Arrowverse kiddos spin-off set in the future. Just let us live, OK?

(Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Corporation.)