Minor spoilers of recent Arrow season four-related news.
As we all know by now, Oliver will almost definitely be going by Green Arrow rather than The Arrow next season. Additionally, we should expect Starling City to be called Star City sometime soon.
The showrunners have justified their decisions to not call Oliver Green Arrow and to not call his city Star City by claiming that, at the show's beginning, Oliver is not yet the Green Arrow we all know and love from comics. The first three seasons (they'll have us believe) were Oliver's prelude to becoming Green Arrow and gradually stepping in that direction. And now season four will finally take that next step and start referring to Ollie by his comic book moniker.
But should the show's name change with Oliver?
I think it's safe to say that this won't be happening. At least not with this comic series, which has already started filming under the name "Arrow". So I'm speaking in hypotheticals here.
It's hardly a disputed fact that the first three seasons of Arrow have varied immensely in quality. Changing the show's name to Green Arrow would reflect the shift that is (supposedly) going to occur this next season. Additionally, it could help attract new viewers by rebranding it with Ollie as a fully-realized hero rather than someone on the road to becoming one.
On the negative side, Arrow does roll off the tongue a bit more easily than Green Arrow. And I imagine that there might be technical issues with changing the name of a show, such as the worry over losing some of the brand power behind the show which it has gained over the past three years.
In the end, it's not a huge deal what the name of the show is. But I, personally, feel that there was some missed opportunity in not renaming the show. Assuming that the showrunners are not exaggerating by claiming that season four will feel like an entirely new show, it could be an effective means of breathing new life (and viewership) into an existing show by reflecting such a huge change in the title.
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