ARROW SEASON 5 SHOOTING TO A SCREEN – SOON!!!

OLIVER QUEEN (STEPHEN AMELL)

Complications are arising for Oliver Queen over in the DCTVU. With Legends Of Tomorrow, The Flash and Supergirl all returning for (Please sir, I want some more. Please sir, I want some… you catch our drift). Arrow is now part of a quartet of superhero shows wrestling for our eyes. As the show heads into its fifth season, the superhero drama is taking aim to the past. The renewed focus on what’s come before is appropriate for The CW’s long-running series, as it will reach the landmark 100th episode, a feat rarely met today.

‘Arrow’ Boss Says Season 5 Is Going Back to Its Roots, and teases Olicity’s uncertain Future.

“We have found a lot of inspiration in going back and looking at what we’ve done the previous four years,” executive producer Wendy Mericle expressed. “nostalgic” focus. “You have the benefit of having all that experience and knowledge, what works and what doesn’t.” And for me, here, at culturedemandsgeeks: Wendy speaks the truth. “It’s nostalgic, going back to our roots in season one and really revisiting what everyone loved about that first season,” she later added.

It’s not just those involved with Arrow behind the scenes who are taking inspiration from the show’s history. Oliver Queen, who was introduced as a murderous vigilante, will be taking stock at a life led and what his future may hold. “He’s looking back at his own past and his own legacy,” Mericle said.

It’s a stark contrast from where Oliver was at the start of the show, when he was nothing but a remorseless killer with “total tunnel vision” on righting his father’s wrongs. “That’s all living in the past,” Mericle said of Oliver’s original mindset. “This is the first time he’s had the maturity and the space to think about, well, how long can you do this?”

           PHOTO: The CW

And the shows new recruits come into play. The newly elected mayor of Star City will find himself taking on a new “team” of sorts – including Wild Dog, a faux Canary and even Curtis Holt – while the original Team Arrow remains disbanded for the time being.

“They don’t know what they’re doing, and Oliver knows that. Truth be told, I’m not sure how excited Oliver is taking on anybody,” Mericle added of the new vigilantes-in-training. “In a season where we’re talking about his past, he’s fine to be out there on his own. He starts to think about his future and training them and what the legacy is [that] he wants to leave for his city. That’s really where he’s coming from.”

Arrow “The Recruits” (L-R): Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt, Rick Gonzales as Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog, Madison McLaughlin as Evelyn Sharp, Stephen Amell as Green Arrow and Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak – Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW

They feature Team Arrow 2.0 — Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez), Artemis (Madison Mclaughlin) and Mr. Terrific (Echo Kellum) — entering the Arrow-Cave for presumably first time. After Green Arrow’s (Stephen Amell) public defeat of Damien Darhk in the Season Four finale, a new crop of masked heroes has stepped up to defend the city. Oliver Queen recruits some of them and begins training them.

Season five also marks the final year of Oliver’s island flashbacks, closing the loop on a years-long journey that fans have embarked on since the pilot in 2012. The anticipated flashbacks will focus primarily on Oliver’s time in Russia as he rises through the ranks of one of the country’s most dangerous gangs, the Bratva (I’m not sure if the gang is real or not? Scary name, though!).

“We want to do it right. It’s something the fans have been waiting for,” Mericle said. “We want to make it gritty and dark and true to what that world would look like … We’re headed towards not just an endgame, but an iconic moment in our show.”

I’m especially keen to see Dolph Lundgren, who plays the Russian big bad Kovar (mentioned at the end of season four, and I expect will give Oliver and star Stephen Amell a run for his money). He’s a force of a nature, an ‘Expendable’ talent and I guess, Stephen – and Oliver – will have to take that on and figure out how to conquer (the mighty Dolph).

Sorry, I’m not talking mushy stuff on the blog, but, If the writers have a plan for Oliver and Felicity in the romantic sense – I hope we see it with a mighty Adam West-styled KAPOOW.

All hail Arrow when it returns (grittier and dark – fingers crossed), so sit down, tune in and get set for a rush. Share and chat about the blog with Twitter, Facebook and any other platform you wish, and I hope you have enjoyed.   🙂 – smiley face

Arrow Season 5 premieres Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. “The Recruits” – episode 2 will air the following Wednesday, October 12.