With cautious optimism we look to Arrow Season 5 to right a ship that has run aground in its last two seasons. Star Stephen Amell has teased more action, and a return to the show’s roots in Season 5, while producer Wendy Mericle told our Christina Radish recently that the theme of this season will be all about legacy (the name of this promo), and focusing on Oliver being torn between his responsibilities as mayor, and his other life as vigilante — one whose team has been scattered to the wind.

It behooves Arrow to stay grounded and leave the magic stuff out of it. Once you introduce magic to a world that already has multiple universes and casual time travel, you risk a guy with a quiver of arrows becoming less and less effective or meaningful as a fighter. He becomes, to cross comic properties here for a minute, the Hawkeye of the group. It’s not good.

But Arrow was good, and hopefully, will be again. A new promo for the upcoming season contains a few confounding elements, though, and I’m not just talking about that super fake punch. We see a statue erected for Katie Cassidy’s Laurel Lance, which is a great gesture. However …Cassidy has just signed a deal to return to Arrow, and make appearances on The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. Who exactly she’ll be playing (or which version of herself) on those other shows is still uncertain, but we do know she’ll be returning to Arrow for the Season 5 premiere to let us all know what she said to Oliver before her death. So perhaps she’ll only be in Arrow’s flashbacks? (We know Arrow loves flashbacks …)


Speaking of flashbacks, we recently learned that Dolph Lindgren will be playing the Big Bad in the Russian flashback sequences, but it’s The Wire and The Walking Dead alum Chad Coleman that we get a glimpse of in this promo as another new adversary for Oliver. (Cutty from the Cut!) Check out the new promo below:

Probably the best thing about this teaser is seeing Echo Kellum’s Curtis starting his training. This is going to be amazing. In Mericle’s interview with Christina, she noted that,

He’s definitely bitten off a lot more than he can chew. The fun part about Curtis is that he really wants to do it, but in many ways, he’s the least equipped to do it, especially out in the field. He’s a very smart guy, but throwing punches is not his forte. You’ll be seeing the evolution of Mr. Terrific, and him dealing with his husband.


Oliver will be training up a whole new team this year, and Mericle told us that,

Evelyn Sharp, who will be Artemis, is somebody that Oliver is pretty confident that he can mold. He succeeded in turning her in Episode 419, so he’s like, “Okay, maybe her. But, this other guy? This Wild Dog guy? No idea what this guy is going on about!” Wild Dog is the one who gives him the most trouble, early in the season, and he’s also the guy who has his own dark past and is going to be dealing with his own legacy. And then, Ragman has a very spiritual identity and he comes from a place of really honoring his Jewish religion.”

Oliver will also be helped along by Jessica Jones actor Wil Traval as Human Target, who will come in around episode 5. This isn’t even mentioning, of course, the status of David Ramsey’s Diggle, who we glimpse in the promo as wearing his army fatigues, as well as Emily Bett Rickard’s Felicity, who will be dealing with the emotional fallout from bombing a bunch of innocent people.

But! All will be revealed soon, as Arrow returns Wednesday, October 5th to the CW.

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