If you're an Arrow watcher, there's one thing you know beyond a shadow of a doubt about Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell): before he returned to the mainland to save his city, he spent five years on a hellish island with only one goal: survive. By the end of Season 5, that goal will have been achieved, Oliver will escape from Lian Yu, and the flashback narrative will catch up to the events of Season 1. That means it's the end of Arrow's episodic structure as we know it, but does it mean they're abandoning flashback sequences entirely leaving the goofy wigs behind forever?

Not according to Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim, who caught up with the press at The CW's panel at the Television Critics Association press tour. Per Guggenheim, you can expect more tangential flashbacks (a la goth Felicity). In fact, there's one coming this season exploring Renee's life before he was Wild Dog.

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Image via The CW

Here's what Guggenheim had to say,

We basically went into this season with the expectation that we would get a sixth season and we basically decided that this would be the last year of the island-centric flashbacks. I think, going forward flashbacks are still a part of the show and we've seen in plenty of episodes we've done non-island, non-Russia flashbacks with Felicity...and we're doing that again on 5.13, we're going to flashback to Renee's period before he was Wild Dog. That's a tool in our toolbox. I don't think we have an expectation to do a flashback every single episode of season 6, but again, it's part and parcel of the show and we'll just continue going on the way we are.

Could there be flash-forwards? It would make a natural transition to set up a new timeline in a way that would maintain the structure of the show, and while Guggenheim didn't confirm that's the direction they'll take, he's not ruling it out.

We've totally talked about [flash-forwards] and I don't rule that out at all. But the island story, which is a continuing story unlike the other flashbacks I've mentioned, will end in Season 5.

While the flashbacks are ending, that doesn't necessarily mean we've seen the end of the island's story. After all, we've seen in pop up in the present day and Guggenheim teased they have a "very specific plan for the island."

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Image via The CW

Even so, the end of the island flashbacks marks a major benchmark for the series, both in fulfilling the promise set up in the first season and how it will shake up the series after five years sticking to a specific format. But Guggenheim says he welcomes the change as a necessary evolution for any long running series.

I do welcome the shift. I think one thing we've been talking about -- at this time of the year, we always start talking about next season and one of the things we've been saying is that when you go past five years, you have to shake things up and you have to change things around and I think telling a flashback story in five years was always our game, and I'm just excited that we're sticking to it and I'm excited that it's a chance to really open the show up next year. One of the things we love doing are those non-island flashbacks stories. We really have always enjoyed them and the fact that we'll have the room and space to do them, again not every episode but as often as we want to is really enticing.

Arrow Season 5 returns from hiatus on Wednesday, January 25th.

For more TCA coverage, check out the links below and stay tuned for the latest TV news.

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Image via The CW

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