'Arrow' Season 8 premiere possibly set in a world where Malcolm Merlyn and Moira Queen's relationship didn't end, new still indicates
The CW had earlier released some pictures from the first episode of 'Arrow' Season 8 'Starling City', that seemed to suggest Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) may find himself in an alternate reality or a new Elseworld. Now, a new picture from the episode released September 17, has revealed John Barrowman's Malcolm Merlyn will be returning from the dead in the premiere, increasing the possibility of this being some sort of alternate world.
The still shows Malcolm sitting next to Oliver's mother Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson) and their body language seems to suggest the two may be romantically involved. This isn't that surprising considering Malcolm and Moira did have a brief relationship while they were alive, which resulted in the birth of Oliver's younger sister Thea Queen (Willa Holland).
However, the fact that they appear to be perfectly comfortable with each other and are sitting in what appears to be Oliver's family home raises the possibility that this may be a parallel reality where Malcolm and Moira continued their relationship even after Thea's birth.
Interestingly enough, while the pictures that have been released from the premiere so far have shown Moira, Malcolm and Malcolm's son Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell), they haven't featured Oliver's father Robert Queen (Jamey Sheridan) or his step-father Walter Steele (Colin Salmon). In the show's second season, it was revealed Moira had grown increasingly frustrated with Robert's tendency to cheat on her and decided to get her revenge by sleeping with Malcolm, who was grieving the loss of his wife Rebecca Merlyn (Laura Adkin ) at the time.
Though they remained friends for years after the affair, Moira refused to tell Thea the truth about her parentage and neither she nor Malcolm pursued their relationship any further, preferring to let it remain a one-time thing.
If this is a world where they stayed together as is implied by the preview, it could mean something important may have happened in this world that significantly changed the way each of these characters developed. As of right now, we don't know whether this is actually an alternate universe or just an illusion of some sort so we're all just going to have to wait till the season premieres in order to get some answers.
The first episode of 'Arrow' Season 8 will air on The CW October 15.