Only one episode is left in Season 5 of Arrow, and The CW is already looking ahead to Season 6. While we still have to wait until next week to see what happens in the showdown of Team Arrow vs. Prometheus and Co., an official description of Season 6 has been released, and it sounds an awful lot like how we'd describe the previous five seasons. Take a look:
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'.
Honestly, if the synopsis hadn't specifically mentioned Rene Ramirez and Dinah Drake, I might have thought that The CW simply made a slight error and accidentally posted the synopsis for one of the earlier seasons. "Unexpected enemies from his past" certainly sounds like something that belongs in one of the seasons set during the flashback period. Producers have already said that flashbacks will be quite different in Season 6, so if this enemy does have a major part to play in Oliver's past, we probably won't see him or her via flashback every single week.
There's the slight chance that Black Siren could be swung as an enemy from Oliver's past, and we do know that Katie Cassidy will be back as a regular in Season 6, but I'm hoping very hard that she's not presented as next season's big bad. There's also the chance that The CW is being deliberately vague about Season 6 due to the fact that Season 5 is actually still airing. Of course, a season still in progress didn't stop the network from seemingly giving away a huge spoiler for The Flash. Season 6 of Arrow simply might just be more of what we've come to expect out of the series. Even if the ratings have dropped in Season 5, the formula has more or less worked with overall viewers over the years.
I'm just bummed that the synopsis didn't say anything about Rory coming back. Ragman was by far my favorite of the Team Arrow newbies in Season 5, and I was pretty bummed that he was the one who was shipped off and out of the action. Sure, magic was pretty out of place on a show starring the Green Arrow, but then so are superpowers, and Dinah doesn't seem to be going anywhere. My heart is also still a little bit broken that we never got Roy back in Season 5, so I'm going to hope that he'll be back for at least a couple of episodes in Season 6.
We'll have to wait, see, and cross our fingers that Season 6 isn't quite as straightforward as it sounds in the synopsis. The Season 5 finale of Arrow airs on Wednesday, May 24 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. Take a look at our picks for five questions Arrow absolutely needs to answer in the finale, and don't forget to check out our summer TV premiere schedule to discover all your viewing options now and in the coming weeks. Be sure to drop by our rundowns for cable/streaming and broadcast TV renewals and cancellations as well. Our TV season finale schedule can give you all you need to know about your shows ending.
