Arrow season 8 premiere title teases some major flashbacks

The title for Arrow’s eighth and final season premiere has been revealed, and its giving us some major flashbacks. Are we going back to the beginning?

This year is undoubtedly going to be a major one for The CW’s Arrowverse. Not only will the shared universe debut a fifth live-action series (Batwoman), it will also pull the trigger on the long-teased five-part crossover Crisis On Infinite Earths. But perhaps the most game-changing events of them all will come in the form of Arrow‘s final season.

The originator of the Arrowverse will return for its eighth offering in October, before the curtain comes down on Oliver Queen’s story once and for all.

Of course, with so much riding on it, the powers-that-be have been incredibly secretive about the upcoming season. However, executive producer Beth Schwartz has finally broken that silence and, in doing so, has given fans an ever-so-slight glimpse into what we can expect.

Taking to Twitter, Schwartz revealed that filming has officially commenced for Season 8, sharing a photograph of the premiere’s script and, in the process, confirming the title of the episode.

The title, “Starling City”, evokes memories of Arrow‘s first three seasons, as following the Season 4 premiere, the city’s name was changed to Star City to honor the presumed dead (but-not-so-dead) Ray Palmer.

Does this mean that we’re destined for a flashback episode? It’s certainly possible – after all, the POP figure of Season 1 Oliver that is featured in Schwartz’s photograph likely wasn’t accident.

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Then again, as the flash-forward narrative will be returning next season, it’s unlikely that the writers would confuse things with a random flashback episode. In that case, there’s always a chance that Oliver could travel back in time instead.

That being said, Black Siren revealed during Season 5 that on Earth-2, the beloved city is still named Starling. Now, given that Oliver is currently traveling the multiverse with The Monitor, there is actually a strong chance that he might end up visiting Earth-2’s Starling City.

Either way, the title of the episode, and the fact that both Katie Cassidy Rodgers and John Barrowman (who portrayed Laurel Lance and Malcolm Merlyn respectively in Arrow‘s first four seasons) have been in Vancouver recently certainly suggests that the season premiere is taking us back to the Star City of old.

Arrow returns to The CW for its final season on Tuesday, October 15, at 9:00 p.m. ET. Are you excited to see “Starling City”? Do you think the premiere will be a flashback episode? Let us know in the comments below!