On the Season 7 premiere of The CW series Arrow, entitled “Inmate #4587,” it’s been five months since Oliver’s (Stephen Amell) shocking decision to turn himself over to the FBI and reveal his identity as the Green Arrow to the public, and life in Slabside Maximum Security Prison has not been easy for him. At the same time, Diggle (David Ramsey), Curtis (Echo Kellum) and Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) have left their superhero costumes behind and taken on new jobs, while Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and William (Jack Moore) try to start over with new lives, as they adjust to their new reality without Oliver.

Following a screening of the mind-blowing episode at the offices of The CW, Collider (along with a handful of media outlets) participated in a Q&A with executive producer Beth Schwartz, who also wrote the episode with Oscar Balderrama. During the interview, she talked about what she wanted to bring to the series, as the new showrunner, the season theme of redemption, doing such visceral fight sequences, how Felicity and William are adapting to life in Witness Protection, the mystery of the identity of the new Green Arrow vigilante, what’s in store for Diggle and Curtis at Argus, Dinah’s career choice, and what’s to come for Laurel.

Be sure to check back, after the episode airs, for a spoiler-filled Part 2 of this interview.

Question:  As the new showrunner, is there anything specific that you wanted to bring to the series?

BETH SCHWARTZ:  For me, because I’ve been on the show for so long, I just wanted to bring all my favorite aspects of the show and put together all of the things with all of the characters. I’ve been with them so long, and the things that I wanted to see them do, they haven’t done yet.

Is there a bucket list item, that you’ve always wanted to see on the show, that you’ve already gotten to do?

SCHWARTZ:  Yes, and I can’t say what it is. We’ll talk later in the season.

You’ve talked about how this season’s theme is redemption. Is that going to be a full season theme?

SCHWARTZ:  Yeah, it’s gonna affect all of our characters, but it will obviously affect Oliver the most, just in terms of everything that he’s done for the past six years and because his identity is outed. Everyone knows who he is, and that’s gonna be a huge. He’s gonna have to deal with that, all season. He can no longer hide behind the mask or prison, or any of those things.

The fight sequences with Oliver in prison are very visceral. Is that something you specifically asked the stunt fight teams to do, and will we see more of that?

SCHWARTZ:  Yeah, I did. (Stunt coordinator) James Bamford and I have had many conversations about what we wanted the fight sequences to look like this year. We wanted to get back to the feel of Season 1 and be a little grittier with some more exciting stunts. We talked a lot about that shower scene. That was a very in-depth conversation of, “Are they going to let us do that?” Because Oliver is in prison, we didn’t want to sugarcoat anything and we just really wanted to show how hard it is for him to be in there. We’ll continue that. We definitely have a lot of really cool stuff coming up, for sure.

How are Felicity and William adapting to life in Witness Protection?

SCHWARTZ:  They are not adapting well. They are both pretty miserable. Felicity is away from her husband, and William is away from his father. They’re away from their family, their city and their real lives, so it’s not going well.

Is the identity of the new Green Arrow a season-long mystery, or is that something you’ll unveil and then explore before you get to the end of the season?

SCHWARTZ:  Yes, we’ll definitely unveil and explore that before the end of the season, for sure.

What is the new Arrow’s agenda? Is he a vigilante hero, like Rene thinks he is?

SCHWARTZ:  I can’t really tell you which way the new Green Arrow will go, but Dinah and Rene will definitely be arguing that point for a little bit. They will be on different sides for a little bit.

What’s in store for Diggle, this season?

SCHWARTZ:  Diggle is full-time Argus now, and his wife is his boss, which I love. You’ll see, in the next few episodes, how he’s dealing with what happened with Felicity. Diggle feels like he’s Oliver’s brother, in a sense, and he obviously wants to protect Oliver’s family, but he’s full-time Argus now. So, we’ll see some Argus stories, which is really fun.

Will Curtis also factor into that?

SCHWARTZ:  Uh-huh.

What’s to come for Curtis, this season?

SCHWARTZ:  We are going to see that Curtis was little more traumatized than we thought from how things went down last season, which is why he specifically chose this position in Argus. That will come out this season.

How are things with Curtis and his boyfriend?

SCHWARTZ:  They’re doing well. They are still together. They respect each other.

Can you talk about the decision to make Dinah the police captain?

SCHWARTZ:  Yeah, it just felt like that was the natural position she would be in. When everyone was choosing what makes them a hero for the city, her beginning and her origin story was as a cop before she was Black Canary, so it just made the most sense. She’s going back to her roots a little bit. She fully believes in the law now. She’s on the other side of things, which is so interesting because Rene is calling her out on it, now that she’s the people who used to chase after them. But she believes that what’s best for the city is law and order, and not vigilantes anymore.

What can you say to tease what Laurel is up to, this season?

SCHWARTZ:  We’re very excited about her story. As you guys know, the theme is redemption and she has the farthest to go, to redeem herself. She’s the DA, but her season-long arc is about, is she Laurel or is she Black Siren? Which one is she gonna land on?

Arrow airs on Monday nights on The CW.