Arrow is gearing up for its fifth season as the connected DC universe on the CW continues to expand with Supergirl joining Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow this year. The upcoming season will pick up with Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) as mayor of Star City, Damien Darkh (Neal McDonough) defeated, and a splintered Team Arrow following the death of Black Canary (Katie Cassidy). This season will also be the final season to feature flashbacks to Oliver’s missing years “on the island” (as we know, he actually spent much of that time off Lian Yu).
We’ve now found out a little bit more about the upcoming Arrow season 5, thanks to a brand new trailer released for San Diego Comic-Con 2016. With new characters and high drama, it looks like this next season is going to be a doozy.
Arrow star Stephen Amell posted the trailer to his Facebook page this afternoon with the very simple caption “Season 5!” (Watch the video above.) The two-minute video starts with an action-packed recap of the end of season 4, before going on to preview the new season. Echo Kellum joins the team as an aspiring vigilante alongside Evelyn Sharp (Madison McLaughlin), the new Black Canary. It also features a new character — Rick Gonzales as Wild Dog. Plus, we get a look at the flashbacks for this season, which feature Oliver Queen training with the Russian Mafia.
Much of this isn’t a surprise for fans of the show — much of season 4 was spent building up Mr. Terrific, and Evelyn Sharp made her debut toward the end of the season as well. Wild Dog is a new addition, but his casting was revealed last month. It’s also not too surprising that we are seeing the creation of a new team, since the original team has been shrinking in recent years. First, Arsenal (Colton Haynes) faked his own death and left Star City, then Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) left to join the Legends team, and finally, Black Canary (Katie Cassidy) was killed off at the end of last season. The trailer also hints that Speedy (Willa Holland) will be leaving Team Arrow this season, which leaves only Green Arrow and Spartan on the front lines.
It’s high time that we got a little new blood in Team Arrow, so it’s wonderful to see Oliver building up the ranks and creating some new team dynamics. The holy trinity of the show (Oliver, Diggle and Felicity) are still very much a part of the new season, but the big takeaway from this trailer is that things are going to change in the Arrow-verse. There’s also quite a bit of humor to be found in these two minutes, which is a huge relief to those who found recent seasons of Arrow to be a little too dark and joyless. Hopefully season 5 will find a better balance between the grittiness of earlier Arrow seasons and the wonderfully campy humor of The Flash.
By far the most groan-inducing element of the trailer is the brief flashback sequence, showing a long-haired Oliver wrestling with some Russians. Most Arrow fans have tired of the flashbacks, and unless some major changes are made in the way that they are presented this season, they may continue to be the weakest part of the show. However, the overall look and feel of the trailer is incredibly exciting. While we’ll have to wait till October to see Team Arrow back in action, it looks like season 5 is going to really up the energy of the show.
Next: What We Know About Arrow Season 5
The Flash season 3 will premiere Tuesday October 4th at 8pm on The CW, Arrow season 5 will premiere in the same timeslot on Wednesday October 5th, Supergirl season 2 on Monday October 10th, and Legends of Tomorrow season 2 on Thursday October 13th.
