Arrow season three may have only just started, but it's already shaping up to be the craziest season yet. The premiere—which aired last night—ended on a seriously heart-stopping cliffhanger...spoilers...seriously, spoilers...
Sara's murder. Whoa.
Did they really just kill off the Black Canary?! Yes, yes they did. We repeat: Whoa. Plus, the hour was filled with so much Olicity goodness, impressive action and heartwarming developments (like Diggle's new baby!), that it felt almost like a season finale instead of a season premiere.
And yet, there's still something even bigger to come this season: meeting the ultimate DC villain, Ra's al Ghul.
When the Arrow showrunners announced at Comic-Con this summer that Ra's would be the big bad of the season, fans Went. Absolutely. Nuts.
Speculation immediately started flying about who would portray the iconic baddie and fans were desperately hoping that maybe, just maybe, Liam Neeson would reprise his role as Ra's from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy—even though we all knew it was next to impossible that the huge movie star would agree to appear on a CW show, no matter how incredible of a show it might be.
But get this: The CW actually did approach Neeson and offered him the role!
When the creative team behind Arrow saw that Neeson told MTV in an interview that he'd reprise the role "in a heartbeat" if he was given the offer, they were immediately excited.
"We never thought he would," CW President Mark Pedowitz told Buzzfeed. "We quickly went to him, just on the off-chance that he had the time to do it."
But unfortunately (and just as expected), Neeson was not able to fit in time for shooting on the CW series, so the network cast Matt Nable, an Australian actor and former rugby player, in the role instead.
E! News previously revealed that the Riddick star will take on the recurring role of Ra's, the leader of the League of Assassins, and father of Nyssa al Ghul (Katrina Law). Proud and unforgiving, Ra's is a ruthless strategist, a master of martial arts, and a shaper of history. We will first meet Ra's in the fourth episode of season three (and 50th episode of the series!), "The Magician."
So sound off, Arrow fans, how cool would it have been to see Neeson on the CW?! Are you bummed he couldn't make filming work, or are you excited to see a new version of Ra's from Nable?
And funnily enough, this isn't the first time Neeson came thisclose to landing a fan-favorite, iconic role. He was also on the short list to play Jamie Fraser on Outlander...but this was way back when Outlander was being considered for a huge blockbuster movie and Neeson was the right age for the part.
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.