Oliver’s Death in New ‘Arrow’ Trailer Means Doom for Starling City

Starling City’s friendly gang of crime fighters is down a hero in the newest trailer for “Arrow,” released Thursday by The CW.

Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who moonlights as the city’s titular do-gooder, Arrow, was killed by Ra’s al Ghul (Matt Noble) in the show’s mid-season finale. In the short trailer for the next new episode, “Left Behind,” he appears only as a lifeless corpse being dragged away from the snow-covered scene of his deadly beat down.

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Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), meanwhile, enters Oliver’s secret lair and confronts the hero’s friends, who include occasional love interest Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards).

The antagonist slams a bloodied sword down in front of them while breaking some bad news: “It’s Ra’s custom to leave behind the instrument of death as a memorial to the fallen. Oliver Queen is dead.”

There’s a good chance Oliver didn’t actually die after getting stabbed through the heart by Ra’s in the mid-season finale — or if he did, he’s likely to be resurrected — but this new trailer makes it look as if he might be missing in action for quite some time. And without the DC Comics hero around to protect Starling City, hoodlums will band together to raise havoc.

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“Together we are going to take over the Glades,” says one, in a most ominous tone.

“Arrow” returns to The CW on Wednesday, January 21 at 8 p.m.