Arrow’s Season 6 Premiere Features An Island Flashback

Last week, fans of the Arrowverse were strung through the ringer when The CW debuted its season finale for its shows. Supergirl and The Flash left fans teary, but no one could have predicted the carnage coming in Arrow. The DC Comics adaptation saw its fifth season end on a fiery note as Oliver Queen watched Lian Yu blow up with all his loved ones presumably on its shores. When Arrow returns, fans will be eager to learn just what happened to Team Arrow – but it will come at a cost.

That’s right. If you thought Arrow was done with flashbacks, then think again. The show’s season six premiere will feature will feature a flashback to the island. That is, technically speaking.

Recently, Arrow‘s executive producer spoke with Access Hollywood about the show. It was there Mar Guggenheim teased another island flashback, but there is a catch. When the creator was asked if the premiere’s flashback would take audiences back to Lian Yu, here’s what Guggenheim had to say:

“If you take me literally at my word, yes, back to the island.”

Don’t get too upset just yet. Later on in the interview, Guggenheim did hint that the Lian Yu flashback won’t be tied to Oliver’s gritty past. The producer recalled his team’s final day of flashback planning, and Guggenheim said he was relieved the back-and-forth time jumps were over.

“We were in the room yesterday and we were going through the flashbacks and we got to the final beat of the flashbacks, I turned to all the writers and said ‘Oh my God, we’re done.’”

If Guggenheim is to be taken at his word, fans shouldn’t worry about the show dragging out Oliver’s past on Lian Yu any longer. The season five finale wrapped up that storyline, so the flashback being hinted as for next season will likely revolve around the finale’s shocking events. The premiere may begin long after the island imploded and then flashback at some point to explain how (and if) any survivors escaped the inferno.

Still, fans should not expect season six to be completely devoid of flashbacks. In a previous chat with IGN, Guggenheim said the storytelling tool wouldn’t be used as much as it has been so far. But, in the end, the team behind Arrow have found that flashbacks can work when they are used sparingly.

“Last year, when we sort of realized we’re going to go past Season 5, we basically made a collective decision that Season 5 would be the final year of flashbacks,” Guggenheim explained. “Next year, in Season 6, what we’ll end up doing is we’ll do some episodes without any sort of flashbacks. We’ve [also] established over the first four seasons of proof of concept that we can do flashback stories that don’t involve what I call the island narrative, even when he’s not on the island.

Based on the characters from DC, ARROW is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Greg Berlanti (“The Flash,” “Supergirl”), Marc Guggenheim (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” “Eli Stone”), Wendy Mericle (“Desperate Housewives,” “Eli Stone”), Andrew Kreisberg (“The Flash,” “Eli Stone,” “Warehouse 13”) and Sarah Schechter (“The Flash,” “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”).

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[HT] Heroic Hollywood