Arrow Season 4 Trailer Analysis

The Arrow season 4 trailer hit us like a pounding from the League of Assassins. It also packed a bunch of DC Comics lore into its relatively modest two minute running time. 

Wait, what’s that? You haven’t watched the Arrow season 4 trailer yet? Allow us to fix that. Then keep reading for all the good stuff that we found in it.

Okay…ready? Let’s do this.

At San Diego Comic Con, Stephen Amell told us that Oliver Queen is “always running” and that we’d see that reflected right at the start of Arrow season 4. At the time, we figured that was metaphorical, but here’s a surprisingly happy looking Oliver who has simply taken up jogging in his time of domestic bliss with Felicity Smoak.

Speaking of “domestic bliss,” the Olicity fans should be quite happy with the start of this season. Okay, now on to the good stuff…

The Star City name change is now official. We knew it was coming, but now there’s a real reason for it. Obviously, with Legends of Tomorrow on the way, Ray Palmer isn’t dead, despite that explosion we saw in the season finale. I’m willing to bet that Ray has just shrunk down to subatomic size and nobody can find him.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s having all manner of strange adventures in the subatomic realm while he’s at it.

Still, in the absence of Green Arrow and the Atom, it looks like Black Canary and Speedy have taken up as Star City’s primo vigilante team.

Oh, and they have a friend. With the visor down, Diggle’s “Magneto” mask looks a bit more like Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Guardian. 

Oh, and this truck of tech/hazardous materials appears to belong to Ted Kord, who DC Comics fans might know as one of the men who wore the mantle of the Blue Beetle. Arrow has teased Ted Kord in the past, so maybe this is the year we finally get to see the Blue Beetle!

These soldier goons appear to be agents of HIVE. In the original comics, HIVE stood for Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination. Something tells me that the show will pick something a little more subtle. 

Some more HIVE goons for you. Now, as for their leader…

Meet Neal McDonough (Dum Dum Dugan in Captain America: The First Avenger and Agent Carter) as the mysterious Damian Darhk. We’ll have a more full explanation of Damian Darhk here on Den of Geek in the coming days, but in the meantime all you need to know is that he’s the head of HIVE.

Oh, and he’s also a former pal of Ra’s al Ghul, so think of HIVE as like the League of Assassins but with a love of high technology.

Here’s the new Green Arrow suit, complete with actual green arrows! It seems like Felicity is behind the design of this one, which is kinda cool. I wonder if she enlisted any help from the Flash team at STAR Labs, too…

This year’s model of Team Arrow, minus Echo Kellum as Michael Holt (who we’ll get to in a minute). Gotta love it.

Here’s Echo Kellum as Michael Holt. Michael Holt eventually becomes the superhero known as Mr. Terrific. Holt is a genius level intellect, probably surpassing Ray Palmer and Felicity. 

That’s one of Mr. Terrific’s T-Spheres, a kind of all-purpose super technology that provides info and intel (as well as defense and offense). Maybe Felicity helps design them here on the show!

Is this a welcome sight or is this a welcome sight? Matt Ryan is back as John Constantine, cigarettes and all. This shot is from episode 5, “The Haunting,” which will almost certainly deal with how Sara Lance returns from the dead. Speaking of which…

Caity Lotz will return as Sara Lance. After all, we have to explain why she’s alive and functioning as the White Canary by the time Legends of Tomorrow begins. This shot is probably also from episode 5, “The Haunting.”

Speaking of Lances, it seems that for whatever reason, Captain Lance is back to being a full on pain in the ass this year. Although maybe he has a good reason for sucker pistol whipping Diggle here that we don’t know about.

John Barrowman is a series regular this year, which means there will be plenty of time spent in Nanda Parbat. Malcolm Merlyn is the new Ra’s al Ghul, and he’s giving the evil eye to Nyssa al Ghul, who believes that leadership of the League of Assassins belongs to her. She’s right, by the way.

This appears to be some kind of terrorist attack or attempted assassination at a mass transit depot. Note the sign for the Central City Orbiter. Presumably, this is a high speed rail line that will help link Star City and Central City…thereby making crossovers between The Flash and Arrow that much easier.

Here’s Jeri Ryan as Jessica Danforth, “a mayoral candidate who is deeply committed to her city and willing to risk her life to stand up for the people…a peer and an old friend of the late Moira Queen, and was once close with Oliver and Thea. She is also a mother, and cares for her daughter above all else.” 

Danforth first appears in season 4 episode 2, so this shot is probably from there. This does make me wonder if the rumblings about Oliver Queen getting into politics this year have some truth. More on that here.

Can anyone tell me if that’s Alexander Calvert (who is playing Anarky) standing just behind her left shoulder there?

Speaking of Anarky…

Here he is having a chat with Damian Darhk. Anarky was a minor Batman villain/ally, but for the purposes of this show he is described as “an elite criminal for hire.”

This may or may not be Anarky using a flamethrower to give everyone a headache.

This is Double Down, a really minor Flash villain who has tattoos that can be used as weapons. He’s lame. I don’t think we’ll be seeing him in more than one episode. It looks like all of the footage in this trailer comes from episodes 1-5, so he should be dispatched pretty early on.

I’m going to wager that this is a flashback sequence. Was Ollie already experimenting with his vigilante archer identity back when he was spending time in Coast City? If so, who is he confronting here?

There’s also a chance that Green Lantern will show up while they’re in Coast City.

The Sucide Squad is probably off the menu this season because of the upcoming movie, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get more Amanda Waller, who appears to have followed Oliver back to the United States here in the flashback sequences.

I only included this shot of Team Arrow making an iconic superhero entrance via skylight because it’s badass. But it’s not as badass as… 

Here’s a shot of Felicity firing a machine gun. Why? Because it’s Felicity firing a machine gun, that’s why. Your argument is invalid.

Arrow season 4 premieres on October 7th. I’ll be here overanalyzing every frame of every episode for you.