Arrow: Here's what Stephen Amell wants to see in season 5

Arrow type TV Show network The CW genre Superhero

Warning: This story contains major spoilers from the season finale of Arrow. Read at your own risk!

It was the end of the world as we knew it in the Arrow finale, that is, until Oliver once again saved the day.

Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) nuked a nearby town, and those deaths made him immensely powerful, making it nearly impossible for Oliver (Stephen Amell) to counteract his magic. Team Arrow then had to race against the clock after Damien launched thousands of nukes around the world.

While Oliver began to lose hope they’d be able to save the world, Curtis (Echo Kellum) encouraged Ollie to remind the residents of Star City that their town was worth saving. Their collective hope helped Oliver combat Damien’s magic, buying Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) enough time to stop the nukes before Oliver ultimately put the big bad down.

In the end, the finale went the opposite route of last season, as Amell teased would happen. Lance (Paul Blackthorne) was officially fired, so he decided to skip town with Donna (Charlotte Ross); Thea (Willa Holland) quit the team to find herself; and Diggle (David Ramsey) reenlisted, leaving just Oliver and Felicity to pick up the pieces after he’s appointed the new mayor of Star City.

Despite the exodus, it sounds like there will be a team next season — at least based on the recently released logline: “Sinister players with a connection to Oliver’s past will push the team to its breaking point, threatening everything Oliver’s worked for and his legacy as the Green Arrow.”

Now to the flashbacks: In one of the show’s more obvious uses of foreshadowing, Oliver had promised Taiana (Elysia Rotaru) that if she didn’t get off the island, he would go to Russia to tell her parents what happened. Cue Oliver mercy-killing Taiana after her magical overload and heading to Russia to fulfill his promise. Hmm, maybe that’s where he’ll meet the recently mentioned Kovar.

In the wake of Oliver saving the world, Amell hopes the series will get back to basics in its fifth season. “When we started Arrow, we were the superpower-less superhero show,” Amell told EW while promoting his new film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. “Because of our success and because of opportunities that The CW has had, we’ve had to break away from that original modus operandi a little bit, because we were introducing Barry Allen, and in subsequent seasons, we’ve shepherded some of the Legends of Tomorrow onto their own show.

“Even though Supergirl is joining the ranks, there’s no new person or new show to introduce this year, and I think as a result of that, we need to get back to focusing more on some of the core elements that used to define Arrow,” Amell continued. “To me, that’s hand-to-hand combat, no superpowers, and dealing with the job of cleaning up Star City.”

Arrow will return this fall on The CW. In the meantime, read our breakdown of The Flash finale’s nod to Black Flash, the potential for season 3 to explore Flashpoint, and that reveal of the man in the iron mask.

Reporting by Nina Terrero.