After challenging Ra’s al Ghul and Damien Darhk, Oliver Queen heads into the new fifth season of the CW’s Arrow hoping to return to the sort of street superheroics we saw when the show began in 2012. A new poster puts Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), wearing a new uniform in the middle of Star City. It’s classic superhero stuff, which is what Arrow really should have been all this time.
The last two seasons of Arrow saw massive expansions into the DC TV universe — there is now The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and this fall even Supergirl — but in the process, Arrow lost its identity. With dark-magic-wielding villains like Damien Darhk, Arrow stopped becoming a crime-driven series and more like a fantasy, which didn’t suit the story or the characters.
After the disappointing Season 4, various figures involved in Arrow (including Amell himself) have revealed the show is indeed returning to its older self in Season 5, once again focusing on crime instead of big, mystical villains and blockbuster stakes.
In Season 5 of Arrow, Queen has become mayor of the struggling Star City, but his office has become overrun with corruption. Meanwhile, Queen takes in three new vigilantes — Mr. Terrific, Artemis, and Wild Dog — and trains them in an effort to build a new Team Arrow.
Check out the poster below, released by the CW. It’s one of the clearest looks at the new Green Arrow costume, which adds sleeves to the vest Queen began wearing last season.
Arrow returns to the CW on October 5.
