Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) will return to Starling City in "Arrow" season 4 premiere after leaving in third season's finale with Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards).
Also, he is expected to sport a new persona as he is about to wear a lighter green costume. While the pilot episode of the fourth season will deal with the aftermath of the third season's finale, audiences will still be taken to a trip to the past. Oliver's past will be revisited and boy, it comes with a big surprise.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Marc Guggenheim said "Arrow" season 4 premiere has a great surprise readied for the audience.
"We have a really great surprise for the season premiere for the flashbacks, and it's made talking about the flashbacks very difficult," Guggenheim said.
"We pick up basically in real time. It's been a number of months later since the last flashback. Oliver is in Coast City, as eagle-eyed viewers noted when he boarded the boat at the end of season 3. What happens there and how he comes to cross with Reiter, that we need to keep secret because it would spoil a pretty big twist in episode 401."
"Arrow" season 4 premiere is officially called "Green Arrow" and as to what that surprise would be, fans just have to wait for the show's release date.
Speaking of flashbacks, it was revealed few days ago that Oliver Queen has met a formidable foe in the past. He is Baron Reiter, who in the comics is known as Baron Blitzkrieg, a former Nazi supervillain who figured in battles against Wonder Woman and Superman. Reiter will be played by British actor Jimmy Akingbola.
The casting of Akingbola as a Nazi raised eyebrows because people think it is historically inaccurate. Akingbola is of African descent and the public thinks it is wrong to cast him as a German Nazi officer. Guggenheim explained the Baron Reiter in the show is different from the one in comics.
"We never planned on actually telling a story about a bad guy who is a Nazi," Guggenheim says. "In fact, when people meet this character, he's not German, he's not a Nazi, he doesn't subscribe to any Nazi philosophies. We were attracted to an organization that actually in the comics had been associated with Deathstroke called Shadowspire. In the comics, Baron Reiter became associated with Shadowspire."
"Arrow" season 4 premiere episode will air on October 7.
