ARROW: John Barrowman on being Ra’s a Ghul

Season 3 of Arrow went to some pretty dark places and had some very intense episodes, culminating in a rather surprising somewhat happy ending for most of the characters, with Oliver and Felicity literally driving off into the sunset. With rumors of a somewhat lighter Arrow to come this season, we had lots of questions for the cast about what happened last season and what to expect from season 4.

We got to talk with Katie Cassidy (Laurel Lance/Black Canary), Willa Holland (Thea Queen/Speedy), Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen/The Arrow), John Barrowman (Malcolm Merlyn/Ra’s a ghul), Paul Blackthorne (Detective Lance) and Emily Bett Rickards (Felicity) as well as Executive Producers Andrew Kreisberg (who was mostly there for Arrow‘s sister show The Flash), Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle.

John Barrowman is always a favorite in the pressroom and we were all thrilled that he made it to our table. Some highlights of our interview:

• Malcolm will be even more evil than before and there will be magic involved, because Merlyn is a magician
• He made his own Demon’s Head ring to wear
• He couldn’t be more opposite in real life to Malcolm, he thinks it’s a great compliment that fans hate him as Merlyn
• He doesn’t like to know what is going to happen for his character until he gets the script

New episodes of Arrow start Wednesday, October 7, at 8/7c on The CW.