Ray Palmer, Count Vertigo, Hong Kong And More In First ARROW Season 3 Trailer

By Adam Holmes on Saturday, July 26th, 2014

UPDATE: Ra’s al Ghul has been revealed as the main villain for season 3. Considering he was mentioned many times last season, this is hardly surprising, but exciting to hear nonetheless. Check out the extended trailer below for his appearance at the end.

Arrow has only been filming for a couple weeks, but they already have enough material to feature in the first trailer for season 3, which premiered at Comic-Con and hit the Web soon after. The first half of the trailer is a brief rundown of season 2, so if you haven’t been watching, now is the time to play catch-up. The good stuff comes after the first minute. A lot of familiar faces, as well as some new ones, and even some action. Check it out!

This only the first few episodes, and already it looks like our main characters have a lot to deal with. Oliver is attempting to buy back Queen Consolidated, but faces resistance from Ray Palmer, played by former Superman Brandon Routh. It also looks like Palmer has a plan to rename Starling City. Perhaps the show is moving closer to its comic book roots by changing to Star City? Oliver is also attempting to build a closer relationship with Felicity, and judging by the look of her at the end of the trailer, it looks like their first date didn’t go so well.

We also got glimpses of Roy Harper and Quentin Lance in their new uniforms, as well as a brief look at Peter Stormare as the new Count Vertigo, who I can already tell exerts a more natural evil than the first Count did. On the flashback front, Oliver is being held captive in Hong Kong by Amanda Waller for reasons yet to be disclosed, but needless to say, Oliver’s life will continue to be hell.

During the Arrow panel, other information was revealed about season 3, including Willa Holland hitting the gym (” The Thea that you saw in Season 1 and Season 2 is not the girl that’s coming back in Season 3.”), Diggle potentially being sidelined because he’s a new father, Quentin lance’s promotion to police captain and Roy dealing with unresolved issues. However, the biggest panel news was the title for Felicity’s upcoming flashback episode: “Oracle.”

Now, a lot of people on social media immediately thought that this means we’ll see Barbara Gordon on Arrow. Sorry folks, no way in hell is that happening. Arrow has cemented Felicty as the DC TV universe’s master computer hacker. If anyone deserves to be Oracle on this show, it’s her. After all, she technically earned the title in last season’s Birds of Prey episode when she featured alongside Huntress and Black Canary. Wait…does this mean Felicity will be crippled on some point? Even for Arrow that would be a dark turn.

In one final piece of news, the next day at the DC TV panel, it was mentioned that Ted Grant, better known as Wildcat, will appear at some point. No other details were provided other than that he would have some sort of connection to Laurel. Perhaps as her boxing coach?

We still have a ways to go before Arrow‘s October premiere, but don’t worry, we’ll get more trailers and previews soon. In the meantime, enjoy these screen caps from the Comic-Con preview.