"Arrow" season 5 will initially follow Oliver Queen and focus on the various challenges faced by him as a Mayor of Starling City and as a teacher for the new vigilantes in town. The premiere episode is titled "Legacy" and it is scheduled to telecast on The CW on Oct. 5.
While executive producer Wendy Mericle teased that the first nine episodes of the sequel will very much focus on the protagonist, cast member Emily Bett Rickards stated the viewers will also get to watch Felicity struggling to hide her pains.
"She is carrying this huge amount of guilt and she is not letting it go in anyway. All it's doing is festering up and around episodes 3-5 we are going to see her break," the actress told NKD magazine.
In a similar vein, executive producer Marc Guggenheim revealed that the viewers will "face head-on the decision that Felicity made" in the first five episodes. He even teased a big surprise coming on her away, which will set a new territory for her.
"We're positioning her to do something in the second half of the year that is really, really key, and that isn't about her relationship with Oliver or even necessarily her father or her mother. It's really new territory for her, and we're very excited about it. Some big things are going to happen with Felicity," Entertainment Weekly quoted Guggenheim as saying.
Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Rickards indicated that her character will be inspired by her mother's emotional intelligence and try to adapt it. "Donna's emotional intelligence is always on point and she is a nurturer and always a fighter, which Felicity didn't realise until she was until she started working in this world," she said.
However, the creators are not planning for a reunion of Oliver and Felicity any time soon. "They're both in crisis mode. Oliver's got two really big jobs, and [Felicity] is spinning out about Havenrock. Until they've gotten some clarity for themselves, there's not much room for the relationship side of things," Mericle teased through TV Line.
Check out the official synopsis of "Arrow" season 5 below:
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.
