Arrow Season 4: 8 Ways It’ll Be A Totally Different Show This Time

This year it's going to be something else.

Arrow Oliver Diggle
The CW

Rejoice, Arrowheads (as no one is calling fans of the show...yet), for season 4 is just around the corner, plunging us once more into the world of television's best rich-playboy-turned-badass-vigilante. 

Oliver, Felicity, Diggle and the rest will be back on screens in the US on October 7 (just one day after The Flash zooms back into our lives), but despite the fact that the faces and locations will look startlingly similar, there are going to be a few major differences this time around. 

The events of last year, from Thea being returned to life via the Lazarus Pit to the tease of a big new villain, and Oliver finally getting together with Felicity to his betrayal of Diggle while pretending to work for the League, are going to have huge ramifications on how things play out in season 4. 

Although there are still a few things that will be around to make it really feel like you're watching the same show as before, such as awesome action sequences, minor villains straight from the comics, and the soap opera-esque CW drama that it actually manages to make work, there's going to be a lot of differences as well, and these are the ways the show is going to become something else

8. A Change In Tone

Arrow Oliver Diggle
The CW

Following on the trend of many post-Nolan comic-book worlds, Arrow takes a pretty grounded and gritty approach to superheroes, albeit not quite so grey (for the most part) as some of the other DC output. That changed in season 3, as Sara Lance's early death cast a huge cloud over the entire season, which the characters never really managed to escape from until the very end. 

The contrast in tone was only furthered by the sunny and funny spin-off The Flash, and although the two will remain very distinct flavours, Arrow is going to start taking an approach similar to that of its younger brother. According to producer Marc Guggenheim, it will be a "lighter tone...[with] a little bit more humour." 

Although it won't be a drastic overhaul, it will still feel somewhat strange watching the heroes being happy and cracking jokes, although giving the bleakness of last year (and how awesome The Flash was) it should definitely be a change for the better. 

Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.