Season five of Arrow is shaping up to be pretty interesting, but the majority of the show’s fans remain sceptical after two disappointing years for The CW series. Neither Ra’s al Ghul nor Damien Darhk ended up working as effective villains, and the show’s focus on the relationship between Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak has really divided fans.
However, if this first image from the premiere is any indication, Arrow may very well be going back to basics. Stephen Amell even indicated as much in a recent interview.
“Even though Supergirl is joining the ranks, there’s no new person or new show to introduce this year, and I think as a result of that, we need to get back to focusing more on some of the core elements that used to define Arrow,. To me, that’s hand-to-hand combat, no superpowers, and dealing with the job of cleaning up Star City.”
What we see below appears to be from a flashback (you can tell from Oliver’s longer hair), but seeing as those were arguably the worst thing about season four of Arrow, it remains to be seen whether or not they can be salvaged this year. In all honesty, Arrow stopped needing them during season two, and why the show has persisted in using them since then is hard to say.
Whatever the answer may be, this is an undeniably cool new look at season five, and with Comic-Con right around the corner, we’ll hopefully see more from Arrow season five very soon.