The CW’s ‘Arrow’ will hit its target a third time this fall with the premiere of season 3, but why wait for a look under the hood? Find out what ‘Arrow’ season 3 holds in store, including new DC heroes and villains making their presence known in Starling City, with our full account of the Arrow’ season 3 panel from Comic-Con 2014!

  • First things first, we got a juicy new look at a season 3 sizzle reel, chock full of new characters. There was Karl Yune as Oliver’s Hong Kong handler, brief looks at Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer (buying Queen Consolidated, rebranding to “Star City”) and Peter Stormare’s Vertigo, and a fleeting glimpse of Roy’s new Arsenal outfit. Lots of footage of Oliver in Hong Kong attempting to escape Amanda Waller, as well as the long-awaited date with Felicity in the present! You know, ignoring the fact that she closes the trailer bleeding on a slab.

  • Interestingly, producers had indeed sought to bring in Ted Kord and the Blue Beetle, though DC wouldn’t allow it, and offered Ray Palmer instead. Producers Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg promise that Routh’s Ray Palmer will be the “game-changing” season 3 character, akin to Faith in ‘Buffy’’s third season. Yes to having an eye on Felicity, less so to any jokey Superman references.

  • Marc Guggenheim jokingly showed all the season 3 corkboard ideas on his phone to the audience, admitting that there was indeed a “shower scene” somewhere…

  • Things are definitely looking tense for Oliver and Diggle, especially now that Roy has become more of a force for Oliver to delegate to. The trailer has Oliver trying to pull the soon-to-be-father out of the field, but #DaddyDiggle fires back that he’d saved Oliver’s life 10 times over. Oh well, there’s always the Suicide Squad…

  • And speaking of Roy, expect the character to have a few lingering issues from his rampage in season 2. Stephen Amell also joked that he no longer had the coolest costume on the show. He’s not wrong.

  • Willa Holland has been hitting the gym, as Thea will return “a very different girl” in season 3, having been with her biological father Malcolm Merlyn. We’ll also return to their limo scene from the season 2 finale, and see more of how that conversation played out.

  • As previously mentioned, episode 108 of ‘The Flash’ and 308 of ‘Arrow’ will be a two-hour crossover event. Felicity will appear in ‘The Flash’ in the fourth episode (the same that introduces Wentworth Miller’s Leonard Snart / Captain Cold), while an early ‘Arrow’ season 3 episode cryptically titled “Oracle” will explore Felicity’s backstory at MIT. Oh, and to debunk a fan theory, Dr. Ivo is not her father, say producers.

  • Colin Donnell will also return in 302 as Tommy Merlyn, nearly encountering Oliver in Hong Kong, though producers promise the event is “not a retcon.” Along that line, we won’t see much of the island of Lian Yu this year, though obviously by the pilot episode, Oliver inevitably goes back.

Well, what say you? Are you excited for 'Arrow' season 3, by all we've learned from the Comic-Con 2014 panel? Tell us what you want to see from the new season in the comments!

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