With less than a month to go until the Arrow season 4 premiere, we’re hearing more and more about what we can expect in the new season.
After the darkness that permeated seasons 2 and 3, season 4 will be taking a lighter approach. With season 4, “Our goal was to return the show more in the tone of the first season-and-a-half,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim tells EW. So, what will that look like?
“It still feels like Arrow, but at the same time, Oliver’s got a new outlook on life,” Guggenheim explains. “We’re driving conflict to the show in ways that we never would have in the first three years. So it still feels like Arrow, but it’s a different take on the show.”
So, what can we expect for our main characters coming up in season 4?
Oliver
In seasons 1-3, Oliver was played “as a guy who was returning home from war with PTSD,” Guggenheim says. “Now he’s put those demons to rest, or so he thinks, and there’s a lightness to him as a result of all the things he learned last year.”
Additionally, Oliver “has more faith in humanity than he did in the past,” showrunner Wendy Mericle adds. “It’s less about erasing his father’s legacy and more about establishing his.”
Felicity
For Felicity, the show is “not defining her solely by her relationship with Oliver,” Guggenheim promises. She’ll have plenty to do running Palmer Technologies, as he signed the company over to her in season 3 before he supposedly died in an explosion.
As a CEO, Felicity will “encounter some unexpected challenges, but it gives us a chance to really show a different side of Felicity. She’s still her funny, quirky, idealistic self, but she’s also now the CEO of a corporation and she’s also now going to have to be strong, confident and imaginative in addition to her already wonderful qualities.”
Diggle
Diggle will be less than thrilled to see Oliver returning to the fold; their relationship was strained when the two parted ways in the season 3 finale due to Oliver’s actions while going undercover with the League of Assassins.
“[Diggle] was the one who was most angered over Oliver’s choices at the end of season 3,” Guggenheim says. “And he’s certainly the one who’s most against Oliver returning and him being forced to work with Oliver.”
However, Diggle’s story will mostly focus on new baddie Damien Darhk, the leader of H.I.V.E. — the group that hired Deadshot to assassinate Diggle’s brother. “It’s something that will drive Diggle in the first half of the year,” Guggenheim previews. “It’s very tied into what’s going on between him and Oliver.”
Laurel
“I definitely think these past few months she’s been able to come into her own,” Katie Cassidy says of her character, who will be the full-blown Black Canary when season 4 begins.
“I feel like this is her time to shine. She’s going to do whatever it takes, especially when it comes to saving Starling City — [which is] something that she’s always done by the book. Being an attorney and working at the District Attorney’s Office, she’s been very involved on the legal side of things, and I think that this is her time to shine being a part of the A story and the action.”
Additionally, “[Sara’s resurrection] very much comes about because of decisions that Laurel makes and choices that Laurel will then have to live with,” Guggenheim teases. “The episodes dealing with Sara’s return are amongst probably the heaviest material that we’ve had for Laurel. We’re using Sara’s return to really get underneath not just Laurel as a person, but the relationship that she has with Thea and the friendship that she has with Oliver.”
Thea
Thea’s story for season 4, meanwhile, will look back to the struggle of being a hero and having a normal life. “Since season 1, we really haven’t done that much with Oliver trying to keep his secret identity secret on the show,” Guggenheim says.
“But that’s something we’re going to be playing around with Thea as we get deeper into the season and she tries to balance hopefully a personal life with being a superhero — something she’s never had to deal with before.”
With Roy on the run, Thea’s new life will include new love interest Alex Davis, who will be played by Parker Young.
As we saw in the season 4 trailer, Thea will also be feeling the lingering effects of taking a dip in the Lazarus Pit.
Sara
Sara, as we know, will be revived via the Lazarus Pit this season so she can go on to be a part of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. And while Thea will be struggling with her own revival, Sara’s resurrection will have its own set of issues for her — and her loved ones — to deal with.
“It’s a different thing than it was with Thea,” Mericle says. “To put it bluntly, she’s more dead. We needed somebody to come in and basically resurrect her and bring her soul back. We were really thrilled that we were able to get Matt Ryan. He’s the perfect character to do it,” she says of the actor who plays John Constantine, the protagonist of the canceled NBC series who will appear in Arrow season 4, episode 5, “Haunted.”
Arrow season 4 premieres Wednesday, October 7 at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW.
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