‘Arrow’ Season 4 Spoilers: Did The Death In Episode 18 Really Get Leaked Online Early?

At long last, the big mystery of “Arrow” Season 4 is about to be resolved. But if you’re among the rabble of fans that sought out some potential spoilers on the matter, you’ve probably already figured out who ends up in the grave thanks to a handful of leaked images.

While the CW cast was filming the funeral scene that will follow the death promised in episode 18, speedy members of the paparazzi managed to get a snapshot of the front side of the gravestone featured in the flash-forward teaser that kicked off the latest season. Previously, all fans saw was Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) mourning at a grave where the stone was turned away from the camera. He gets in a car with Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and they drive off together, prompting months of speculation about who eventually dies.

A stream of rumors, theories and supposed leaks from the set have poured out online, and now the producers of the show are confessing that one member of the paparazzi actually did spoil the surprise for those who sought it out online, much to their dismay.

“Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with a cemetery, we have to go out on location,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim told Entertainment Weekly. “We have to be out in the world. We can’t produce this show just on our sound stages. We have extra on-set [production assistants] patrolling. We try to put things up to block people. It does happen and it just sucks.”

For the sake of not ruining the key episode for fans, we won’t link to the leaked set photos here. But those eager to find out who ends up dying before Wednesday’s big episode will, sadly, have no trouble finding the photos online. Producer Wendy Mericle previously told the Hollywood Reporter that fans may want to experience this shocking death the way the writers intended.

“It’s going to be huge and significant,” she said. “There's no question that it is going to be shocking. It was a shocking thing for us to process and to write the aftermath. We really wanted to make sure that we did it in a way that was very honorable and gave us space to honor all the characters' various reactions to it. The episodes we've written in the aftermath are devastating. They're meant to be. We wanted to explore that and have everybody feel the impact of this loss."

“Arrow” airs the big moment in question on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EDT on the CW.

Will you be tuning in to see who ends up in the ground? Comment below or tweet your thoughts to @TylerMcCarthy.