'Arrow' season 5 spoilers, updates: Four masked heroes to become Star City's defenders? Will Dolph Lundgren appear on the show?

When "Arrow" season 5 returns to the small screens, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow will start questioning his legacy as Star City's mayor and vigilante.

To recap the events of season 4, Thea Queen (Willa Holland) and John Diggle (David Ramsey) both decide to leave Team Arrow during the finale. As a result, only Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) were left behind to protect Star City.

Now, four new masked heroes will join Oliver and Felicity as they battle the big bads who are out to wreak havoc in the city when the series returns for its fifth season.

"I can say it looks amazing," Wendy Mericle, the series' showrunner, told TVLine. "We're now part of this [TV] universe where you have 'Game of Thrones' and the way that they deal with violence and how they do their fights, so it's our attempt to do something similar. It's bloody."

It certainly looks like season 5's fight scenes are making life hard for Amell. Last Friday, he shared a photo of him with a swollen nose on Facebook. 

Meanwhile, during the Television Critics Association press tour last Thursday, Mericle confirmed that Dolph Lundgren ("Rocky IV, "The Expendables") was tapped to play a villain in "Arrow" season 5. He will appear in three episodes and will figure in a "mano a mano" battle with Oliver. The impending battle was even described as "one for the ages."

In related news, Rickards recently shared that she has gotten around to reading the script and noted how exciting the upcoming season would be. According to the actress, all characters have more to offer in the latest installment.

Comicbook.com reports that Rickards' character, Felicity, will be going through some changes in the fifth season brought forth by the things she went through since day 1. Fans have come to love her as the soft-hearted member of Team Arrow, but according to her, this time around, viewers will see a different side to Felicity.

She was quick to add, though, that those shipping "Olicity" would have to ease up and perhaps ship for a new love team as Felicity and Oliver remain platonic teammates this season. They've broken up, but they will try to put aside their differences so they can work together in Team Arrow. How they do it is something fans would know soon enough when the show returns on air.

"Arrow" season 5 returns Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 8 p.m. EDT on The CW.