‘Arrow’ season 2 spoilers: John Barrowman will return as Merlyn before finale ends

Just in case you were wondering who was potentially going to be the Big Bad of “Arrow” moving into season 3, we may now have a pretty good idea.

In a post on Twitter, it was none other than John Barrowman himself who confirmed that he is flying out to Vancouver to shoot some more as Malcolm Merlyn on The CW series. This is something that we definitely campaigned for in our recent podcast on “Deathstroke,” given that he is one of the most compelling villains out there. He’s also found a way to be fully integrated in the story this season even without being on the show directly for most of the season. After all, Thea Queen just learned that Malcolm is really her father after Slade dropped the ball on her during that heated scene in the abandoned warehouse.

Also, who knows what this guy has been planning since he was last on board the show? His son Tommy is dead, and there could still be more plans for revenge stewing within him. The only question is whether or not the writers feel like they have as substantial of a story to tell for a third season as they did with him the first. We feel like it’s possible, but you need to introduce another villain to go along with him. That’s what made season 2 so great to us: You have someone in Slade whose motivations for being evil stem directly from Oliver and the Queen family, and then a guy in Sebastian Blood who is more of a guy who is evil for evil’s sake. It’s nice to have a balance, and to have someone who is out to do something more than just settle a vendetta with the Queens.

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Photo: The CW