‘Arrow’ season 3 spoilers: ‘Wolverine’ actress to replace Devon Aoki

It looks like “Arrow” is going to have itself a new Katana, and it is someone who should be familiar with the world of comic adaptations already.

Sources confirm that Rila Fukushima of “The Wolverine” has signed on for the recurring role, who also goes by the name of Tatsu Yamashiro and is a martial-arts expert. She comes on after Devon Aoki (“Sin City”) was forced to exit the part for scheduling conflicts.

This Katana character presumably will play an important role in Oliver Queen’s development now that he is in Hong Kong. Who knows? It’s possible that she could turn up at some point in Starling City, and we firmly expect there to be at least one connection there besides just Amanda Waller. Last year, the flashbacks to the island made so much sense given that we had Slade Wilson there, and we knew eventually that this was going to lead to the story of Deathstroke running amok in the city itself.

This year, it’s a little more ambiguous what the show is planning to do, other than eventually present us with Ra’s al Ghul as the Big Bad for the season. Given that this character has not been officially cast yet, our guess is that we will not be seeing him in at least the first handful of episodes. (If he has been cast, then the show is doing an absolutely amazing job keeping it a secret.)

The new season will premiere come Wednesday, October 8 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on The CW, and we’ll have some further casting news to share soon (hopefully). For now, tell us what you think about this shake-up in the comments below, and head over here to see a first look at Colton Haynes’ Roy as Arsenal. You can also sign up to get more TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: The CW