SDCC 2014: Ra’s Al Ghul Revealed As Arrow Season 3 Villain
By Steve Lam
Last night’s Night of DC Entertainment saw the release of a modified Arrow Season Three trailer. All the previous goodies were there, but we got a definite confirmation of who the new season big baddie will be at 2:33 — Ra’s al Ghul.
The introduction begins right after the Arrow title card and Season Three premiere date. As voiceovers describe Ra’s al Ghul’s notorious reputation and myth-like status, the camera focuses in on a lone cloaked figure, sword at his side, standing inside a desolate structure. The camera continues to pan around him showing his decorated black clothing. The final voiceover comes from Oliver stating, “If half of the stories that I have heard about Ra’s al Ghul are true … We will all pay.” And the shot ends on Ra’s al Ghul’s ring-adorned hand on the hilt of his sword.
Attending the program,
was able to get some answers on Ra’s al Ghul’s involvement in Season Three. Though the cast and creative powers were mostly secretive, they did state that Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) is a big reason for the appearance of the famous villain:
"In his eyes he’s just as big a hero as Oliver."
A large chunk of Season Three’s story arc will also be dedicated to the relationship dynamics between Merlyn and Thea Queen (Willa Holland) described as:
"Having the most dysfunctional father/daughter relationship ever."
As for the good versus evil struggle, series producer Greg Berlanti stated that the plot will boil down to:
"Who hates who more … A lot of what we’ve been doing the last three years has been leading up to this."
Originally a mentor of Bruce Wayne’s when he was still training to become Batman, Ra’s al Ghul, leader of the League of Assassins, becomes one of the Dark Knight’s most dangerous and cunning of rivals. The villainous leader’s involvement in Arrow is that he also mentored Malcolm Merlyn, whose alter ego is The Dark Archer, and Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), whose alter ego is the Black Canary. I will spare comic book fans the rest of Ra’s al Ghul’s history, as he’s one of the most famous supervillains in the DC universe. Strangely enough though, this will only be the second time he’ll appear in live-action. The first time was by Liam Neeson in Batman Begins and in flashback sequences in The Dark Knight Rises. Going by Arrow‘s proclivity for realism, it’s unknown if the Lazarus Pit will come into play for the series. It’ll be interesting to see how they explain his immortality, if they even go down that route.
As for who the actor playing Ra’s al Ghul will be, the cast and crew remained silent on that information. We could be in for a surprise.
Season 3 of Arrow will premiere on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 at 8:00PM EST on The CW.