‘Arrow’ season 3 spoilers: Exec on the greatness of Ray Palmer

The addition of Ray Palmer into the “Arrow” universe for season 3 is an interesting one, and for a number of different reasons. For starters, he is really not a villain by any means, but he’s also somewhat of a rival to Oliver Queen. Professionally, he wants to pick up his company, and personally, he could be a love interest for Felicity Smoak. None of this is even mentioning the fact that he is also The Atom, though it’s not clear if he has this power at the time the season starts.

So far, it seems as though everyone is loving the presence of Brandon Routh in this character on the show. Just take a look at what executive producer Marc Guggenheim told TVLine about it:

“He has exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations. And what’s fun about the way Brandon interacts with everyone is we wanted someone who would offer a bit of what Grant Gustin did — someone who’s a little more on Felicity’s end of the spectrum in terms of color, and at the same time is very different from Grant [Gustin’s Barry]. And Brandon, he’s just this change agent that shakes up everybody … You’re going to see that there’s a lot going on with him. He’s not what he initially appears to be.”

Having the knowledge already that Ra’s al Ghul is the Big Bad for season 3 does ease some of the tension off of this storyline somewhat, at least in that we know that the show is not just setting things up here so that Palmer goes completely crazy. He is one of the new heroes gracing the screen this year, and that list will also include Ted Grant, otherwise known as Wildcat.

We’ll have more on “Arrow” and Palmer to report on when it becomes available. For now, just click here to get some other scoop on all we cover via our newsletter.

Photo: The CW