ARROW Season 6 Will Feature a “Different” Oliver Queen; Deathstroke Will Return

[Warning: The Following Contains SPOILERS From the Arrow Season 5 Finale.]

Production on Arrow‘s sixth season began the other day, and it promises to be the start of a new era for the series. Oliver Queen’s island flashback narrative has come to a close, bringing the series full circle. Season six’s main theme will be “family,” with Oliver and William’s relationship being a big part. Now, we have some more details.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Marc Guggenheim says that Arrow will be exploring a “different” Oliver Queen next season. His experiences over the past decade, particularly in the past year, will lead to him experiencing new growth and becoming a mentor to his team. “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.”

Speaking of his team, in the season five finale, Oliver watched as Lian Yu exploded while his team was (seemingly) still there. It’s likely that at least most of them survived – Wild Dog and Dinah Drake have been upgraded to series regulars, while Thea will “never” die – and now, we can rule out another character.

At the Heroes & Villains FanFest (via TV Line), Stephen Amell confirmed that Manu Bennett’s Slade Wilson/Deathstroke will definitely be back on Arrow next season. “I can report that Manu Bennett is back to being a part of the show, and I think we will see him multiple times this year, which is awesome.” In the season five finale, Oliver shared information to Slade about his son Joe, in exchange for helping him defeat Prometheus. This sounds like a good start for a new Deathstroke arc next season.

Additionally, Amell reveals that season six will see the return of a character who hasn’t been seen since season one. (Any ideas?) He also says that Oliver is getting his own apartment, while we’ll likely still see some flashbacks – mostly just to flesh out the supporting characters’ backstories.

Stay tuned for more news as we have it.

Arrow returns on Thursday, October 12th at 9 PM EST on The CW.