After all of the season 3 news Arrow‘s producers revealed to reporters at last week’s Televisions Critics Association (TCA) Summer Press Tour what more, really, was there to share at their Comic-Con panel?
That depends. Do you want more in the way of spoilers for the upcoming season? Well, there was very little of that kind of thing on display. However, would you like to see some actual footage from the upcoming season?
Behold, the epic season 3 trailer! Well, hold on. Just to clarify, this is really like half a montage of season 2 (it even starts with Huntress’ voice-over about the perils of “letting the darkness in) and half actual new footage, almost all of it likely coming from the season 3 premiere. Right. With that settled, I send you now to the trailer:
According to those who were at Comic-Con when the trailer debuted, there were audible gasps in the crowd in reaction to that closing shot of a bloodied Felicity, about which Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg merely joked Felicity “had a little booboo.” If you were paying close attention you would also notice that the trailer introduced us to Brandon Routh‘s Roy Palmer/The Atom, Karl Yune as Maseo (Oliver’s handler in Hong Kong), and Peter Stormare’s new version of Count Vertigo.
Listen, they literally just started filming season 3. They were in the same position at last year’s Comic-Con when they premiered a season 2 trailer which in all actuality contained very little season 2 footage. However, it drove everyone crazy with its last second twist of Black Canary popping in and then popping right back out. The big hook with the season 3 trailer is mostly that Oliver & Felicity will go on a date, and she will end up later that same evening bloodied and on a slab in the Arrow cave (Amell accurately described their date as “going horribly”). Plus, we see Oliver pushing Diggle away, Ray Palmer swooping in to potentially buy Queen Consolidated (and apparently re-naming Starling City to its more comic-book-appropriate “Star City”), Roy doing his Red Arrow/Arsenal thing in his cool new costume, Sara Lance popping back in to kick butt and chat, and lots of crap with Oliver (and Amanda Waller) in Hong Kong because, dangit, this show is committed to its flashbacks.
The panel included producers (Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim) and stars (Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, Colton Haynes, Willa Holland, John Barrowman and Paul Blackthorne), but with TCA last week and Comic-Con this week this is really more of a 1-2 punch. Last week, they told us quite a bit about their season 3 storylines, and now at Comic-Con they showed us what some of those storylines look like in action with the trailer.
So, what new (new to me at least) information did we learn from Comic-Con?
1. They weren’t trying to fake us out with Oliver’s confession to Felicity in the season 2 finale
The exact quote came from EP Greg Berlanti, who said they “weren’t trying to fake anybody out with Oliver’s confession to Felicity at the end of last year, so we’ll deal with that directly this year.”
In other word, if you thought they were just going to drop that Oliver/Felicity “I love you bomb” in the finale and then not immediately address it in the ensuing season premiere you were dead wrong. However, they re-confirmed what they’d already told the press prior to Comic-Con, which is that Brandon Routh’s character will be a love interest for Felicity.
Based on how Arrow normally handles these things, you could guess Felicity gets hurt in the season premiere because Oliver let his guard down, he calls off any romance with her as a result, she deals with her lingering feelings for Barry Allen when she crosses over into the Flash‘s 4th episode, Routh’s character is around flirting with her (and looking damn handsome), and by the mid-season finale (after the 8th episode’s cross-over with Flash) something happens again between Oliver and Felicity.
2. Roy and Oliver still have some issues to work through
From THR’s write-up:
Amell said that with Roy by his side as he works his way to Arsenal, Oliver has become more humorous and sarcastic, classic elements of the character “that we’re building toward.” Amell noted that there will be “unresolved issues” from last season with Roy that are still bubbling under the surface.
3. Felicity WILL get her own flashback episode
The producers already said this season would feature more episodes with flashbacks centered around characters not named Oliver Queen, and also that they were in the process of writing the script for an episode finally giving us Felicity’s background. At Comic-Con, they confirmed an early season 3 episode named “Oracle” will have Felicity-centric flashbacks delving into her history at M.I.T.
You hear that, Arrow fanatics? They’re seriously calling an episode which will presumably be all about Felicity “Oracle”? You know what this means, right? They totally know about all the fan theories that Felicity will become Arrow’s version of Oracle (instead of Barbara Gordon, as in the comics), who is, of course, one of the founding members of the Birds of Prey. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything more than that, but they know, oh, they know.
4. Whatever is in store for Thea will involve some serious physical activity
According to Willa Holland, “Thea is going through something pretty crazy. All I can say is I’ve been hitting the gym a little bit.” She ran away with Malcolm Merlyn. There’s no telling what crazy ass League of Assassins-esque crap he might be putting her through.
5. DC won’t let them use Ted Kord
Kord Industries has already been referenced on the show, and when a curious season 3 casting call leaked earlier in the summer and seemed to describe Ted Kord exactly just under a made-up character name we all thought we knew where this was going. And then they cast Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer.
Ray Palmer? Wait, you mean The Atom, basically DC’s version of Ant-Man (I know, I know, they’re not exactly the same)? What happened to Ted “Blue Beetle” Kord?
DC happened, that’s what. For whatever reason, they wouldn’t let them use Ted Kord, forcing them to use Ray Palmer instead.
If you happened to miss the additional spoilers and bits of insight the producers shared at last week’s TCA, check out my summation elsewhere on the site or just read Andrew Kreisberg’s TVGuide interview.
The Flash premieres on The CW on Tuesday, October 7th, while season three of Arrow kicks off on Wednesday, October 8th.
Sources: THR