‘Arrow': 13 Secrets We Learned While Visiting The Super Set 

‘Arrow\': 13 Secrets We Learned While Visiting The Super Set

“Arrow” season 4 is really ramping up. Villain Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) is scarier than ever. #OTA is basically a canon hashtag. (Thanks, Felicity Smoak!) And Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) is back from the dead.

MTV News had a chance to catch up with the “Arrow” cast on their Vancouver set yesterday. Here’s what they had to tease about the upcoming season — including Oliver’s (Stephen Amell) run for mayor, the “cat-and-mouse game” between Oliver and Darhk, and that elusive engagement ring…

Though we got a sneak peek at what Oliver’s friends and family think of this idea of running for mayor (er, Laurel, Thea, and Diggle seem to think it’s a joke…), the most interesting reaction may come in the form of Detective Lance. Though Lance hasn’t always been Oliver’s #1 fan, it sounds like he may come around to the idea of him running Star City…

According to Stephen Amell, Team Arrow’s reactions are “slightly incredulous,” while Laurel suggests that Oliver “maybe don’t bring that up” with Lance. But Paul Blackthorne told us that the eventual reveal is a “great scene … which pertains to some of the reasons why Oliver was running for mayor and trying to prove something to Lance by doing that.”

Blackthorne added: “I’ve found that Lance was quite proud of him. As we’ve been doing these episodes, I sort of was feeling [like] Lance has this fatherly pride that he is actually stepping into the light and doing it for real now.”

Though some fans may have worried that Felicity’s reaction to Oliver confessing his plans to run for mayor was less than enthusiastic, it turns out CEO Smoak was just processing. Emily Bett Rickards told us: “I think the first moment was like, ’OK, honey, maybe we should talk about that?’ And then there’s this unbound support that they sort of have for each other.”

Amell confirmed the Olicity love, saying of Felicity’s reaction to Oliver running for mayor: “She’s very supportive of it. It galvanizes their relationship.”

We can’t be the only ones who have been worried about the relationship between Oliver and Thea, right? The two were physically fighting — um, excuse me, 

— only a few episodes ago. Well, fear not, friends. It sounds like Oliver’s bid for mayor may bring them closer together…

According to Amell, the candidacy “actually works well for his relationship with Thea,” with her becoming involved in his mayoral campaign. From teenage drug addict to nightclub owner to campaign manager. Thea Queen is going to have an excellent memoir someday. (Possibly that day is today.)

isn’t excited about Oliver running for mayor of Star City? That would be one Damien Darhk, who is not a fan of Star City leadership in general. According to Amell: “[Darhk] doesn’t want anyone to be mayor. He doesn’t want any galvanizing force or goodness in the city. So this puts everyone at odds.”

Though the Green Arrow and Darhk have butted heads, this will be the first time that Darhk goes after Oliver — though his initial tactic may surprise you. According to McDonough: “He loves it at first because he thinks he can use Oliver as his pawn. We find out rather quickly that that pawn is not for sale, and it certainly sets me off and makes me do some really horribly things.” Yikes.

Darhk will “take things” from Oliver.

Team Arrow should definitely be worried about Darhk. While Rickards says the Big Bad is will to “kill anyone in [his] way” and “has so much power,” Amell confirms that the “cat-and-mouse game” between “Oliver and Darhk will continue to develop over the first nine episodes of the season.

As McDonough describes it: “It’s no holds barred after a little while, and I take things from his life and he takes things from my life and, by the end of the season, it’s gonna be the Shootout at the OK Corral.”

only care about taking over the world. According to McDonough: “You’ll find out about his personal life, which comes as a bit of a shock to everyone. Without giving it away, it’s a pretty good one. It’s really good. And, obviously, the Green Arrow’s gonna figure that out and use that against me also.”

Though Amell confirmed that, of course Oliver fears for the lives of his loved ones, he has learned to trust his team, saying: “One of the growth points for my character this year is OK, if you guys are in, then you guys are in, and I’m gonna trust that you can handle yourselves.

“Even though one of them is my sister and of course other two are life longs friends and people that I care about and love and another one is someone that I’m in love with and actively dating and considering proposing to, so that is a growth point for Oliver.”

Speaking of Oliver’s lady love, though Amell wouldn’t reveal

Moira’s engagement ring might make another appearance (and Rickards said she hasn’t tried it on yet), he did confirm that it would be back “sometime during the season.” Amell also hilariously commented that the bowl in Olicity’s apartment is the worst hiding spot ever… But we kind of already knew that.

You didn’t think Oliver would neglect his future mother-in-law, did you? According to Amell, the dynamic between Oliver and Donna in season 4 now that Olicity is dating is “excellent.” He elaborated: “I had always imagined that Oliver and [Donna] had been speaking in the time between [Oliver and Felicity] leaving together at the end of season 3 … and then returning … to the suburbs. I had always imagined that Oliver in his nice, easy-going state would have a dialogue with Donna Smoak, which was proven correct, and leads to some funny moments.”

Oliver and Diggle will clash over how to handle H.I.V.E.

Though the bro faction of Team Arrow may has started down the road to reconciliation in this week’s episode, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some bumps along the way.

According to Amell: “While the two of them continue to work together — I think we’re over the hump of what happened at the end of season 3 with Lyla — they’re not at odds in terms of being against one another, but their view points on how to deal with H.I.V.E. and the strategy just really come to a head.”

Just tell me how this will affect the timeline on my wishlist scene: Oliver Babysits Sara Diggle. Thanks.

If you thought Felicity was distracted from those suspicious texts probably from a micro-Ray in this week’s ep, then you ain’t seen nothing yet. According to Rickards, Felicity “goes neurotic” trying to determine if Ray is actually dead, adding: “She’s still Felicity in a sense that she’s still kind of bubbly, she’s like still there, but there’s this energy that I don’t think we’ve seen in her before. [She’s] super focused and very wired and [has] the need to figure that out.”

Luckily, she’s got new office buddy Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum) to help her. According to Kellum: “You see them kind of try to find out what’s going on with that and he kind of helps her on the path of trying to get Ray Palmer back, too.” #TeamNerd

Curtis will get more involved in Team Arrow

Curtis won’t just be helping Felicity at Palmer Tech. Kellum teased: “As the season progresses, I feel like he’ll get pulled further and further into the Team Arrow world. There’s a lot of fun stuff coming up in some of the episodes where he gets to go out in the field and stuff like that.”

Even better? We’ll be getting some Curtis/Diggle interaction, which Kellum described as defined by “a mutual respect.” Um, here for it.

According to Amell, anyone could be dead in the “Arrow” flash-forward we saw in the season premiere. When asked who it might be, Amell teased: “Modern television has proven to us that you can literally kill off anyone.” (Um, but not Felicity, right? Even modern television exempts such cruel a fate…)