Oliver Queen has gone through a lot of changes on Arrow. He's gone from brooding to cheerful to brooding again, with some back and forth on whether to murder his enemies thrown in for good measure. Every season of Arrow finds Oliver going through some kind of personal change and Season 6 will be no different. When Arrow returns in the fall, executive producer Marc Guggenheim has revealed that the show will further explore Oliver as a mentor type figure, putting his decade of hellish experiences to good use.
This season, we're trying to give you a different version of Oliver. Because of the journey he went on in season 5, he finally got to a place where he was ready to follow everyone's advice and discard the past and move on with his life. The Oliver Queen that you'll meet in 601, he's still the Oliver you know and sometimes love, but he has a different sense of himself... In season 6, I think you'll see Oliver giving the people in his life the advice for a change. He's been through five years of being this superhero and he went through five years of hell before that, so he's got 10 years of very heavy experience to start to bring to bare, and that's something we're interested in seeing more of a mentoring Oliver as the various people in his life face their challenges.
Season 5 of Arrow ended in a pretty dark place, with Adrian Chase giving one last middle finger and blowing up the entirety of Lian Yu with literally all of Oliver's friends and family still on it. Of course, most if not all of these characters will be alive and well when Season 6 airs, but Oliver doesn't know that yet! While this could have been a very dark turn for Oliver, he won't let the near-deaths of all his loved ones weigh him down. Way to be emotionally healthy-ish, Oliver!
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Marc Guggenheim revealed that Season 6 will further explore Oliver as a mentor figure. Season 5 dealt with Oliver learning to expand the team and train a new group of vigilantes. Now that he's gotten the hang of taking people under his wing, Season 6 will see him take a page from Diggle's book by giving more personal advice. Oliver has had an... interesting life, to say the least, so he probably has some wisdom to hand out. He's also got his son William to worry about, which could be one way he will have to learn to be more parental.
Arrow moves to a new night in the fall and will premiere on Thursday, October 12, 2017, at 9 p.m. EST, and we can expect some major crossover action in the first half of the season. Who knows? Maybe Stephen Amell's dream will come true and we'll get an Arrow/Supernatural crossover. Until then, plan the rest of your summer viewings with our summer TV premiere guide. To learn more about all the shows that have been cancelled or renewed, check out our network and cable/streaming guides. If you're not up on all the many reboots and revivals that are on the way to the small screen, our list of the most exciting can help you out.
