‘Arrow’ season 3 spoilers: More on the layers of Ra’s al Ghul

Even though Ra’s al Ghul may not be showing up immediately on “Arrow” season 3, there should not be any question as to whether or not he is going to be the Big Bad: He will be, and he will be bringing all sorts of gravitas along with him.

Also, you should expect to get a version of the character more in line with the comic books than what we saw with Liam Neeson during “Batman Begins.” This is something that executive producer Andrew Kreisberg touched on in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

“Now that the Arrow/Flash universe contains people with powers and contains the Mirakuru serum, it gives us a bit more license to be a little more ‘comic book-y’ than certainly even Christopher Nolan set out to do.”

So why include him at all this season? As Kreisberg notes, the themes of the story made it into an appropriate time to see more of Ra’s, and to tie his story into so many other characters we know already like Nyssa and Malcolm Merlyn:

“A lot of the themes for Oliver’s journey that we were discussing this season are wrapped up in identity. Can he be both Oliver Queen and the Arrow? A lot of that turned out to get tied up with what we thought of Ra’s al Ghul and who he was and where he came from and what his ultimate goals are. All of those things lined up perfectly.”

What makes Ra’s interesting to us is that he is not exactly like Slade Wilson in that he doesn’t have this desire to get revenge on Oliver; however, he’s always been a part of this universe, and this is something that he will have to contend with.

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Photo: The CW