Arrow Season 4: 9 Things You Need to Know
Jim Halterman at . Updated at .SPOILER ALERT: The following slideshow contains information about Arrow Season 4 Episode 1 and beyond.
Having seen the exciting premiere, we can confirm that six months will have passed when we kick off Arrow Season 4, with things having changed dramatically our beloved city – now called Star City – is in big trouble.
Will Oliver and Felicity find themselves pulled back to their life of crime fighting?
Based on our recent chat with Executive Producers Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle, here are 9 things to know about the season ahead...
1. Lighten Up!
It’s clear even from the season 4 trailer that Oliver seems, to quote Mr. Queen himself, "happy." It’s no accident that we'll see him not so miserable in his new domestic setting with Ms. Smoak. "It is deliberate," Mericle said. "It's really more coming from where Oliver is as a character. We definitely did want to come into the season and change the tone. It is the fourth season. You do want to change things up."
2. Olicity is ON
Kiss those days of will they/won't they goodbye because, whether you love it or hate it, Oliver and Felicity are together. "He's happier now. He's in love with Felicity," explained Mericle. "He's no longer kind of the post-traumatic stress disorder-suffering solider he was in the first three seasons."
3. A Big New Bad
Damien Dahrk makes his presence known in the premiere - and he’s a little bit different from past villains. Guggenheim explained they gave actor Neal McDonough one invaluable note as to how to play Dahrk: "You’re not only evil but you really enjoys being evil. There’s a real glimmer in his eye whenever he puts the screws to someone.It is something we haven’t seen on the show before and that’s one of the reasons why we wanted to go in that direction." In fact, the writers are so happy with McDonough that Guggenheim admitted they keep writing him into episodes.
4. Flashbacks Galore
With so much happening in the present, don't think we won’t still be flashing back to earlier days of Oliver as the Arrow. We actually may see some familiar places once again that we didn’t see so much throughout Season 3. Stay tuned!
5. A Team United?
While last season saw Diggle, Laurel and Thea learning how to be a team and fight the baddies without Oliver, we also saw them make their share of mistakes. "I think everyone has learned their lessons from last year," Guggenheim teased. "Some quicker than others [but] I felt the team was pretty cohesive operating before Oliver gets back into town and I think you’ll see that cohesion continue into future episodes." Of course, don’t expect everyone to be happy that Oliver is back given how things went down at the end of Season 3.
