Last Night Hall H held its first ever late-night panel: a three-hour preview of Warner Brothers/DC’s current slate of television programs – Gotham, The Flash, Constantine, and Arrow. The pilots of The Flash, Gotham and Constantine screened (reviews of all three will be posted later) – but the big news out of the panel concerned Arrow.

The Green Arrow himself (Stephen Amell) moderated the panel – and he revealed just who the secret ‘Big Bad’ of the upcoming third season will be (drumroll): Ra’s al Ghul. Hit the jump for more highlights (including one other additional character being added to the Arrow-verse).

arrow-comic-con-panel-recap

After Gotham & The Flash screened, Steve Amell came out to introduce the same extended trailer of Arrow’s third season that’s been making the rounds for the past day or so – except this time an extra fifteen seconds were added on. In these fifteen seconds, the camera whips around a man decked out in a sprawling green garb, a huge sword hanging to his side. As the camera whips around, we hear various characters describe Ra’s Al Ghul – and what a huge threat he poses to Starling City and Arrow himself. The camera never pans up to Ghul’s face (as no doubt – the part has yet to be cast) but it was unmistakably the hard-to-kill super-villain. So there you have it -- Season Three: Arrow vs. Ghul.

Executive Producer/Writer Andrew Kreisberg elaborated that one of the major themes of the season will hinge on “allegiance and loyalty”. With Ra’s al Ghul entering the picture, previously thought enemies may have to reconsider their differences. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend… It’s just a question of who’s worse” Kreisberg teased, “War is coming and each character is going to have to face which side [they’re] going to be on.”

Finally in addition to the already announced Katana (Devon Aoki) and The Atom (Brandon Routh), Amell revealed one more character being incorporated onto Arrow this season: Ted Grant (aka Wildcat). Per actress Katie Cassidy, her character Laurel will be heavily involved with the ‘Man with Nine Lives’ (a possible romance perhaps?). And so Arrow continues to draw and mine from DC’s rich roster of superheroes/villains. As Amell himself is quick to point out: who even cares about a Justice League film at this point; it’s already happening on the small screen…

Season Three of Arrow premieres on the CW October 7th.   Be sure to check out the season three trailer here, and click here for all of our previous and continuing Comic-Con coverage.

arrow-season-2-poster