'Arrow' season 5 spoilers: EPs address flashback issue, tease a possible Russian setting

DC Comics TV adaptation "Arrow" is confirmed to have a fifth season, as the show brought high ratings for The CW. Fans of the Emerald Archer can breathe now, because they will see more of their favorite hero as he fights with the bad guys for another full season.

Executive producer Marc Guggenheim recently shared some details about the show during the Writers Guild Festival, where he also addressed the issue with flashbacks. The series has been giving viewers a glimpse of Oliver Queen's past for quite some time now, but fans seem to grow indifferent to it. "Part of the appeal of the flashbacks – certainly in the first two years, but I think the first three years – is seeing what a big difference it is between Oliver Queen in the present day and Oliver Queen five years ago. The problem is that we are telling a five-year story in the flashbacks of Oliver becoming the guy you met in the pilot. So the deeper you get into the flashbacks, the closer he becomes to being that guy, and, thus, you lose that element of the flashbacks that was so interesting, which is how different he was.... That's something we have struggled with this year," he said via TVLine.

Meanwhile, there are speculations that the next season will be set in Russia, as Oliver's backstory with the Bratva might be given focus on. Co-producer Wendy Mericle more or less confirmed the rumor, saying, "I don't want to tip too much, but it's a very good possibility that we'll finally find out how Oliver got that Bratva tattoo and how he learned to speak Russian." In a report by Collider, Mericle was careful not to divulge too much spoilers, but she mentioned that they already have a good grasp on how the plot will take shape in season 5. "We know what we're working up to. The season will be easier to break because we have an endpoint, and we work backwards from there," the showrunner said.

"Arrow" season 4 airs Wednesdays on The CW.