‘Arrow’ Season 5 Spoilers: How Will Oliver Handle The New Vigilantes?

Oliver Queen isn’t exactly patient, but he’ll have to be when he recruits new heroes. As seen in the “Arrow” Season 5 trailer above, the hero isn’t happy about recruiting new team members. However, executive producer Wendy Mericle says he’ll eventually value his role in their rise to power.

“He appreciates more the significance of being a teacher and what that means,” Mericle told TVLine. “In terms of this universe of martial arts and fighting and training people and what that means, he’s learning there’s value in being a mentor.”

The Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) will be mentoring three new vigilantes on the CW drama. First, there’s Wild Dog, also known as Rene Ramirez (Rick Gonzalez). He’s a former marine who likes machine guns and is a little too reckless. Then there’s Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra). He’ll be taking over Laurel’s (Katie Cassidy) job as a District Attorney by day and the aptly-named Vigilante by night. Finally, there’s Artemis (Madison McLaughlin), the teenage hero that audiences already met under her real name Evelyn Sharp when she impersonated Black Canary.

Just because Oliver appreciates his new role doesn’t mean he’ll let his new students know that. When asked if he’d be nice to his protégés, Mericle laughed. “Why would he do that?” she asked.

Oliver may not like to admit it, but he needs the help. He’ll have several villains on his hands this year, including the evil Prometheus and gangster Tobias Church (Chad L. Coleman). Between handling multiple bad guys and training newbies, he’ll need some help with his day job.

Even though the Green Arrow was the one who decided that he wanted to be mayor of Star City, he doesn’t seem very interested in the job. Thea (Willa Holland) will be picking up the slack as Ollie’s chief of staff, a job she’ll excel in. “Perhaps, to her own surprise, she’s actually really, really good at it,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim revealed to Entertainment Weekly. “All the skills that she learned by watching her mother for all those years, as well as running Verdant, she’s found very transferrable to City Hall, and in many ways, she’s a much better chief of staff than Oliver is a mayor.”

“Arrow” Season 5 premieres Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 8 p.m. EDT on The CW.