Arrow: 3 major things we learned from the Season 8 premiere photos

3. Welcome To Earth-2?

We’ve already established that there is a lot of intrigue surrounding Arrow‘s upcoming season premiere, and a large portion of that is down to the title. “Starling City” harkens back to the first three seasons of the show, when its setting was indeed known as Starling City. From Season 4 onwards, however, it adopted the comic-accurate name of Star City.

Thus, given the name of the premiere, and the fact that the season will focus on Oliver’s multiverse travels, it’s always been a safe bet that the episode would be set on another earth – especially when you factor in Tommy Merlyn’s appearance in the Season 8 trailer.

However, the newly-released photos have indeed confirmed that, as one of them feature Oliver in the Queen Mansion sharing what appears to be a sweet moment with, wait for it, his mother Moira Queen, while another features him with Tommy. Now, given that the Queen Mansion is no longer in use on Earth-1 and, more importantly, Moira was killed by Slade and Tommy died during The Undertaking, it’s certain that Oliver does indeed travel to another earth in the premiere.

While we knew that Susanna Thompson and Colin Donnell would be returning and that the Queen Mansion would resurface, we didn’t know when or how, so these photos have indeed shed a little light on the matter.

The question is: Are we looking at Earth-2’s Queen family and friends?