With exactly two months to go until the return of Arrow, we are slowly getting more hints regarding what to expect when Oliver Queen and company continue their never-ending quest to clean up Star City. Not only will matters become further complicated for these vigilantes, but the events of another show will bleed over, possibly affecting the status quo in significant ways.
Recently, Comic Book Resources caught up with executive producer and co-showrunner Wendy Mericle to discuss what to expect from Season 5’s opening episodes. Not only did they learn that things pick up four and a half months after the events of Season 4’s finale, but a little insight is gained as to how things will go from bad to worse.
“The city is not in a great state. Oliver will still be the Mayor when we open… He will be fighting on two fronts: There is a new criminal element in town, the mob, which we haven’t really explored on the show before. We dealt a little bit with the Bertinellis in Season 1, and they are going to be a huge element this season.”
While bringing back the Bertinelli family certainly adds an interesting element to the show, one can only hope this signifies the return of Helena Bertinelli/The Huntress, who has gone unseen since Season 2 (we’re not counting the tie-in comics). Granted, the character’s involvement may be contingent on the availability of actress Jessica De Gouw, but why leave the door open for such a prominent DC character unless you intend to have a large payoff? If not, I can see fan backlash coming and that’s certainly not what this show needs, given negative reactions to Season 4.
By now, many of you know that The Flash intends to adapt the “Flashpoint” story arc in the early episodes of its third season and those events’ reverberations will likely be felt on Arrow and possibly other DC shows. It is, after all, a shared universe.
Mericle plays it coy, but gives a bit of an answer:
“This is a million dollar question. There will be some effect. I can’t tell you how big or how small, but we will definitely honor that [Flashpoint] has happened. There will be some characters that are more influenced and impacted by it, mainly Felicity. She’s going to be carrying something in regard to that this season.”
We can keep guessing as to what those effects may be between now and October, but this will hopefully lead to undoing the death of Black Canary. Katie Cassidy recently joined the ilk of John Barrowman and Wentworth Miller as having become a series regular across all DC shows on The CW and “Flashpoint” would most certainly provide for an organic solution.
Arrow returns for its fifth season on Wednesday, October 5 on The CW.