Arrow EP Reveals Thea's New Job In Season 5

There are a lot of big changes in store for the cast of Arrow in season five, and that's not just limited to Oliver Queen. Sure, Ollie is now the mayor of Star City, while still protecting the city as the vigilante Green Arrow. However, half-sister Thea is also moving into a surprising new role.

"What we've done is we made her Oliver's chief of staff," Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim tells Entertainment Weekly. Guggenheim goes on to hint that this new career path will give Thea a chance to define who she is outside of the shadow of her father, Malcolm Merlyn.

"Perhaps, to her own surprise, she's actually really, really good at it. All the skills that she learned by watching her mother for all those years, as well as running Verdant, she's found very transferrable to City Hall, and in many ways, she's a much better chief of staff than Oliver is a mayor."

In Arrow Season 5, "Newly appointed Mayor Oliver Queen finds himself challenged as he fights on two fronts for the future of Star City. With Diggle back in the military and Thea adamant about hanging up her hood as Speedy, Team Green Arrow is down to just Oliver and Felicity – but they're no longer the only vigilantes in town. Green Arrow's public defeat of Damien Darhk at the end of Season Four has inspired a new crop of masked heroes to step up and defend the city, though their painful inexperience makes them obstacles, rather than allies, in the field. The arrival of a deadly new adversary will force Oliver to confront questions about his own legacy, both as mayor and as the Green Arrow."

Arrow returns to the CW on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. ET.