Arrow had quite an eventful Season 1 finale this past May, as Oliver Queen battled Malcolm Merlyn to the death (we think?). But even though the big bad guy didn't walk away, he succeeded in his plot to destroy the Glades. Now Ollie is reeling from the death of Tommy Merlyn, the failure of his crusade, and the imprisonment of his mother as an accomplice in "The Undertaking."

But Ollie won't have much time to mope, as Season 2, beginning Wednesday night, is bringing about a whole new series of challenges. Even as he works to rebuild Queen Consolidated and keep his family together, Ollie is faced with a new business rival in the form of Isabel Rochev (Summer Glau) and new costumed heroes like Black Canary (Caity Lotz) and The Flash (Grant Gustin).We had the chance to talk with Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg about what Season 2 has in store for Ollie and the gang, and how the introduction of truly superhuman characters will impact this grounded superhero universe.

Summer Gau as Isabel Rochev in Arrow: Season 2.

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It's about five months later, which gave us enough time for everybody to have internalized the events of the finale. What was fun for us was we really approached the season premiere as if it was a movie sequel. Since everyone is in slightly different circumstances, whether it's emotionally, professionally, or even geographically, it gave us a chance to really give people some cinematic re-introductions. It really feels like almost a pilot, in a way.The Queen family is persona non grata in the city. The company's stock took a massive hit, and it's ripe for takeover, which forces Oliver to step in as CEO. Summer Glau, from Firefly and Terminator, plays Isabel Rochev, who represents the company that's trying to take it over. She becomes a nemesis for Oliver Queen this season, more than the Hood.The city itself is really struggling. There were a lot of deaths. And there are copycat vigilantes that have sprung up in the Hood's absence. And Sebastian Blood [played by Kevin Alejandro], who's a new character. He's an alderman from the Glades who uses the earthquake as his bully pulpit in his rise to power. So there have been a lot of changes and aftershocks as we pick back up.What's really important is how one citizen views him, and that's Laurel. She blames the vigilante for Tommy's death. Laurel is now with the District Attorney's office, and she's made it her mission to bring him to justice. So we have a really interesting role reversal from last season, where Laurel was the de facto ally of the Hood. This season she's made it her mission to bring him down.Absolutely. We were trying to defy expectations, and you really saw over the course of last season beginning in the pilot how Lance was obsessed with bringing him down. And by the end they had formed a bit of a trust. We'll definitely see that relationship continue to grow and evolve in the first half of this season.Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's funny, the villains this season have the point of view that the citizens of the city have suffered for too long at the hands of the elite. And that's actually what Oliver thinks, too. So we sort of have a hero and a villain with the same drive. They're just obviously going about it in different ways. This season, for Oliver, he decides he doesn't really want to be the vigilante anymore. He wants to be something more than that - he needs to be the hero.Being a vigilante didn't really solve anything last year. The Undertaking still happened. The Glades were still destroyed. Hundreds of people were killed, and Oliver couldn't stop it. This season he decides that it's not enough to just cross names off a list. He needs to be a symbol of hope for the city, so that's what he sets out to do.This is really the beginning of the Black Canary mythos. Caity Lotz is unbelievable in the part. We're so thrilled to have her. She's such a great addition to our cast. Those people who were expecting it to be Laurel straight off, it's something that we've done the whole way through the show. The first person you meet that you think is the character actually isn't. Chronologically speaking, the first Hood we meet isn't Ollie, it's Yao Fei. The first Deathstroke we met was Billy Wintergreen, not Slade. And the first Merlyn we met was Tommy, not Malcolm. So we sort of have a history of introducing the proto-version of a character before we get to see the comic book version of them. So we're just continuing along in our tradition of that.The Black Canary is going to have a surprising impact on all of our characters. That's something we're so excited about. Episode 5 is a heavy Black Canary episode, and for my money, I think it's one of the best episodes we've ever done.There's a hint of that. We're still doing everything we can to keep the show as grounded and realistic as possible. And it's not even so much that there are more fantastical elements in the show. It's also how the characters deal with them. On other shows and other movies, the fantastical became very commonplace. Anything fantastical that happens on our show, we hope that it'll be treated by our characters and our writing as we would all react if something like that had happened in our world. So met with a certain amount of skepticism and a certain amount of awe. There are some people for who it doesn't matter if the Flash runs right past them; they still don't believe it's real. And I think that's what helps keep the show grounded.I don't think people need to worry that the show is tonally different or has suddenly jumped the shark from where we were last season. It definitely feels like a slow evolution as opposed to "Oh, wow, they just threw super powers in there."Arrow Season 2 premieres on the CW on October 9 at 8pm EST.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter , or Kicksplode on MyIGN