When “Arrow” season 5 came to an, so did the island flashbacks. For 5 seasons the flashbacks were used to tell the story of Oliver Queen’s 5 year journey back to Star City, and now that story has been told. But that doesn’t mean the flashbacks will be going away.
The CW recently released a behind the scenes video for “Arrow” season 6, and executive producer Marc Guggenheim noted that while the flashbacks won’t focus on Oliver, they will still be a part of the show.
“We’re not eliminating flashbacks. We’re eliminating what we call the ‘serialized flashback story,’ which was, you know, we’re telling a five-year story of Oliver,” Guggenheim explained via CBR. “I think all of us, including Greg Berlanti, we were all very much in agreement that no, this was always designed to be a five-year story with the flashbacks. Let’s honor that. Let’s end the flashbacks as we always intended to, which would be with Oliver running through the forest like we met him in the pilot, firing that arrow, lighting that bonfire and that’s the end of the flashbacks.”
So now that Oliver is out of the spotlight in the flashbacks, who will they focus on?
It sounds like the show will be diving into the stories of the other characters on the show, and Wendy Mericle teased that we could be seeing some origin stories. She also noted that some episodes won’t have any flashbacks.
“And you do have more time and real estate in the episodes themselves, so we’ll be able to break form and maybe tell someone else’s flashbacks, tell origin stories in a different way, which would be really cool to tell, other character stories, which is very exciting, and the episodes where we don’t have them at all, you’re able to explore stories and explore character and you just have a lot more time,” Mericle added.
It’s already been confirmed that Slade Wilson will be getting a two part episode this season which will fill in the blanks in regards to his backstory, and it should be interesting to see how many other “Arrow” characters end up getting their own flashback story.
“Arrow” will return on Thursday, October 12.
After a violent shipwreck, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) was missing and presumed dead for five years before being discovered alive on a remote island in the North China Sea. He returned home to Star City, bent on righting the wrongs done by his family and fighting injustice.
As the Green Arrow, he protects his city with the help of former soldier John Diggle (David Ramsey), computer-science expert Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), his vigilante-trained sister Thea Queen (Willa Holland), Deputy Mayor Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne), brilliant inventor Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum), and his new recruits, street-savvy Rene Ramirez (Rick Gonzalez) and meta-human Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy).
Oliver has finally solidified and strengthened his crime-fighting team only to have it threatened when unexpected enemies from his past return to Star City, forcing Oliver to rethink his relationship with each member of his “family”.
