Arrow Showrunner Wendy Mericle Reveals Whether Damien Darhk Is Felicity's Father

During a recent interview on the set of Arrow, series star Emily Bett Rickards revealed that there were plans to use Felicity Smoak's father coming up soon -- and that he would be both rich and "probably a supervillain."

Not unreasonably, many fans and even some press speculated that her father might ultimately turn out to be none other than Damien Darhk, the season-long big bad on Arrow played by Captain America: The First Avenger and Marvel's Agent Carter actor Neal McDonough.

Not so, says Executive Producer Wendy Mericle -- although she kind of seems to wish she'd thought of it!

"That's a great idea, and such a great teaser, I almost don't want to spoil it," Mericle told ComicBook.com during an interview, the full text of which will run later today. "Unfortunately, no. Damien Darhk is not her father. That's a great theory. Who knows! You guys might have just arc-ed out the rest of the season for us right then and there! No, that's a great idea, but no, he is not. We are going to bring her father in. He will definitely be evil. He's going to be up to no good, but it's not going to be Damien, unfortunately. Great idea though. Huge props to everyone there. That's amazing."

So...who is Felicity's father, and what is Damien Darhk up to? Well, Arrow is back tonight, so you can watch at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW and see if you pick up any clues.