Arrow Season 4 News: Possible Premiere Date, First Episode Details

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We have all the details on the Arrow season 4 premiere date, villains, spoilers, and more right here!

Arrowseason 3 is finished, but Arrowseason 4 is already confirmed, and there's already news about it creeping out there. We'll collect it all and keep it right here for you. There are spoilers ahead, so be careful!

The Latest News

We have the first details on Arrowseason 4 episode 1 right here! They're not telling us the actual title yet, but here's what we've got.

Arrowseason 4 episode 1 will be written by Marc Guggenheim and new co-showrunner Wendy Mericle, from a story by Greg Berlanti and Beth Schwartz. Thor Freudenthal will direct. How do we know this?

#desktop @MericlesHappen @ARROWwriters pic.twitter.com/Di5PUYJKrg
— Marc Guggenheim (@mguggenheim) June 17, 2015

So, when will Arrowseason 4 episode 1 air? We think we know...

Arrow Season 4 Premiere Date

Do not take this as official confirmation of anything, but there's a pattern that Arrowhas always stuck to with their premiere dates. Arrowalways premieres right around New York Comic-Con. Whether that's by coincidence or design is another story, but it's happened three times in a row.

So with that in mind, and assuming the CW doesn't move the show to another night, I predict that the Arrowseason 4 premiere will be on Wednesday, October 7th, 2015. I will update this if I hear anything different.

I have good reason for predicting this. Check it out:

Arrowseason 1 premiered on Wednesday October 10th, 2012...the night before NYCC.

Arrowseason 2 premiered on Wednesday October 9th, 2013...the night before NYCC.

Arrowseason 3 premiered on Wednesday October 8th, 2014...the night before NYCC.

If anything changes, I'll let you know. But for now, expect Arrowseason 4 episode 1 to arrive on Wednesday, October 7th.

But the big question, of course, is always who the next big baddie is. Well, now we know...

Arrow Season 4 Trailer

Alright, so it's not quite a trailer, but ust for kicks, enjoy this video of Marc Guggenheim tormenting teasing fans about what's in store for Arrow season 4...

Arrow Season 4 Spoilers

Season three ended on a surprisingly happy note, with Oliver and Felicity riding, quite literally, off into the sunset. And when Oliver says he's done being the Arrow, he apparently means it. At least that's what star Stephen Amell told TV Line.

“Roy outed himself as the Arrow, so if I were to re-create the suit and go out, it would undo all of the sacrifice that he made. So the Arrow persona, for better or for worse, it can’t exist anymore.”

Ah, but the clever interviewer knew enough to ask Mr. Amell if adding the word "Green" to the "Arrow" codename would be a way out of this situation. "I mean, would that do it?" Amell said with a smile. "We’ll see."In another interview (conducted the same day at the CW upfront) he told E! Online that "Arrow is done. No more Arrow suit. I've worn the Arrow suit for the last time."

In addition to what we already knew and suspected about HIVE and Damian Darhk showing up for Arrowseason 4, Mr. Amell said two magic words: Coast City. Can Hal Jordan be far behind?

Watch the brief interview here:

Meanwhile, executive producer Marc Guggenheim discussed with io9about what the tone for season four would be.

"Every year you want to mix things up and there was sort of a collective desire on all of our parts to try to inject a little bit more lightness into the show, a little bit more humor. It’s not going to radically change. The show’s still going to be the show but in terms of tone we’re coming off a very very hard season for all of our characters. We wanted to try to mix it up a little bit."

We'll see how that works out!

Arrow Season 4 Villains

The name has been kicking around the internet for awhile, but the Arrowepisode "Al Sah-Him" confirmed it. Damian Darhk will be the villain of Arrowseason four. In the comics Damian Darhk is a pretty minor Teen Titans villain, but it sounds like they're putting a new spin on him for Arrow.

Ra's al Ghul told Oliver about Damian, a man who thought he should head the League of Assassins, and then took off with their secrets and some waters from the Lazarus Pit to form his own organization. We know that organization is HIVE, which in the comics is known for having some super awesome technology. So Arrowseason four may have a villain as devious and physically capable as Ra's al Ghul, but with sci-fi technology to back it up.

As for what HIVE might want David Ramsey (John Diggle) told E! Online:

"From my understanding, H.I.V.E. is going to be a big part of next season's big baddie...We are going to delve right into why H.I.V.E. hired Deadshot to kill Andy and what H.I.V.E. is all about to begin with. There will be a lot of Diggle's connection to H.I.V.E. next season so stay tuned."

The HIVE connection has been teased since season two, and their name has popped up from time to time in season three.

I originally thought that perhaps this "Damian" was referring to Damian Wayne. Arrowhas an ongoing flirtation with Batman mythology, and it's never been more obvious than during season three, which chose Ra's al Ghul as the baddie of the year. But even before that, the League of Assassins (that's the League of Shadows to you Batman Begins fans) was a major presence in season two, which also showed us a hint of Harley Quinn, introduced minor Bat-villain the Dollmaker, and so on down the line.

I was dead wrong, of course. There's never been so much as a mention of Gotham City, let alone Batman, on this show. But if they had decided to use Damian Wayne, perhaps a teenaged Damian Wayne who has never met his father, it would set up the possibility that perhaps Batman has been operating quietly in the shadows for years. Perhaps he even retired before Oliver put on a hood.

Anyway, that ain't happening. We'll see what Damian Darhk can do to Starling City in the fall!

Arrow Season 4 Storyline

It's not much, but we do have an official synopsis for the upcoming season. Don't expect any real spoilers here, but it's all they're giving us right now...

"After a violent shipwreck, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) was missing and presumed dead for five years before being discovered alive on a remote island in the Pacific. He returned home to Starling City, bent on righting the wrongs of his family and fighting injustice. To do this, he created the persona of the Arrow and allied himself with former military man John Diggle (David Ramsey), computer-science expert Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), billionaire inventor Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), lawyer-turned-vigilante Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), and his sister Thea (Willa Holland). Uneasy alliances and rivalries will shift as Oliver faces his most difficult challenge yet."

Arrow Season 4 Details

Things will look a little different next year, though. Arrow season four is getting a new showrunner. Well, a new co-showrunner, at least. Marc Guggenheim announced that Wendy Mericle will be taking over some more duties for Arrow season four. Ms. Mericle is no newcomer to the Arrow world, having written and produced a stack of episodes, and serving as executive producer.

With the Arrow-verse about to expand by another show (DC's Legends of Tomorrow) and possibly two (with Supergirl assuming that fits in this world) you can see how they might need some help next year.

Lexi Alexander (Punisher: War Zone, Green Street Hooligans) will direct an episode of Arrow season 4. We don't know which one yet, but it'll have to be an early one, because she's going to shoot in August, right around the time the show goes back into full production mode. Maybe it's the season premiere?

Ms. Alexander broke the news on Twitter...