The genesis of modern DC television began shortly after the end of Smallville, on October 12, 2012, when Arrow premiered on The CW. Oliver Queen's crusade to rid Star (ling) City of crime has changed quite a bit over the last few years, though, and we've seen the introduction of masked heroes and villains, metahumans, and even magic. Arrow will return to its more grounded roots when its fifth season premieres this fall, but will it drop the idea of magic entirely? In a word, no, but it's a little more complicated than that.
Cinema Blend's own Nick Venable caught up with Arrow Executive Producer Wendy Mericle at San Diego Comic-Con and asked if the show would abandon magic in the future. She said:
No, once it's there, it's definitely part of our universe, but I don't think we'll be leaning into it in the same way. For sure, we will not. The goal this year is to go back to our roots and make it much more of a gritty crime show, and that's where we started, and it's been a lot of fun.
In a comic book universe, magic represents a Pandora's Box of sorts. Once the concept has received a thorough introduction, one cannot simply put it away and forget about it. Arrow's fifth season will certainly continue to acknowledge the existence of magic in the greater DC television universe, even if it's unspoken, but it won't rely on it as a central narrative device as it did in Season 4. Wendy Mericle seems to indicate that they could use magic at some point, but the overarching premise of Arrow Season 5 will restore the series to its former status as a grounded and gritty crime story.
This news will undoubtedly please Arrow fans that recently jumped ship in favor of Marvel's Daredevil. Embracing magic represented a bold step for The Emerald Archer's solo series, and in many ways it paid off, while in other ways it did not. Some fans felt that the series strayed a little too far from what made them fall in love with it in the first place, and many people associated with the series have shown great passion about returning to a plot centered upon street-level crime. David Ramsey a.k.a John Diggle a.k.a Spartan even enthusiastically spoke out about bringing Arrow back to a its status as a series predicated on the basic idea of Team Arrow constantly facing off against the criminal underworld.
Speaking of the criminal underworld, it sounds like there will be no shortage of crime lords for Oliver, Felicity, and the rest of Team Arrow to take on when Arrow returns. Stephen Amell told us during those same Comic-Con roundtable interviews about Oliver Queen's recent promotion to Mayor of Star City, and it sounds like the former billionaire playboy hasn't had much time for his civic duty because of his nighttime vigilante activities. That's bad for the city, but good for those of us who like Star City completely crime-ridden and in need of saving.
We will bring you all of the latest and greatest details related to the upcoming season of Arrow as they become available to us. Oliver Queen will return to kick some serious criminal ass when Season 5 premieres on Wednesday, October 5. Make sure to check out our fall premiere schedule for The CW and mark your calendars appropriately.
