SDCC 2014: Arrow Panel Liveblog

It's Friday at San Diego Comic Con International, and that means plenty of TV panels to keep everybody busy. Soon, we'll have some interviews coming from iZombie and The Walking Dead...but first: Arrow is onstage.

As long as it says "Updating..." at the bottom, we're still updating.

Taking the stage for the panel today are series star Stephen Amell, executive producers Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti and series regulars Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey, Colton Haynes, Willa Holland, Paul Blackthorne and John Barrowman.

The footage shown showcased a lot of the season, including Ray Palmer, Felicity and Oliver flirting with the idea of a relationship, a new dynamic between Oliver and Laurel and of course, flashbacks to Oliver's time with Amanda Waller in the past.

The discussion with the cast and producers started with a message that while Emily Bett Rickards was not in attendance, fans shouldn't read too much into her absence. She's just filming this weekend.

Msot of Season Two's big moments, including the returns of Sara Lance and Malcolm Merlyn, were set in stone before the start fo the season. Kreisberg said that they always knew they were building to making Merlyn a series regular in Season Three but that they wanted to give him a dramatic return.

"I waited my entire life for an opportunity like this, and to see the fans react this way," Amell said. "I remember sitting in this ballroom and making a promise to the people that were here that we were going to work really hard and that the show wasn't going to suck. It sounds simple, but that's what drives us every day."

Holland discussed that very early in his time on the show, she had a kissing scene with Colton Haynes; now, as the presumptive sidekick to Merlyn, her character arc is going to be a major part of the upcoming season.

Ramsey praised the writers for raising the stakes his character is dealing with by making him an expectant father (which we saw in the Season Two finale). The question of whether he can or will stay with Team Arrow is very much in play as a result.

Barrowman kept things light by joking about showering with Amell, when a question came up about his off-camera antics.

"I've yet to read what I'm about to do, so I'm sitting here not knowing like you're not knowing," the actor said.

Kreisberg reiterated the plans for a two-hour Arrow/The Flash crossover movie and explained that it will be a crossover event featuring characters crossing over between the shows, apparently including the police departments of the two shows working together.

"These things are not happening in separate worlds, so what happens in Starling effects Central City and vice versa," Kreisberg said.

Felicity will show up in the fourth episode of The Flash to resolve her storyline with Barry Allen.

The group also reiterated that while Oliver and Felicity will go on a date, there will be sexual tension with Ray Palmer, too.

Kreisberg admitted that, as many fans and press had suspected, they originally had inquired about Ted Kord in the role that would eventually go to Ray Palmer. DC Entertainment vetoed that, saying that they had other plans for Kord.

"We wanted to bring someone on who was fun, kind of like Superman...so we got Superman," Kreisberg joked.

"The dynamic between Oliver and Roy brings out parts of the Oliver Queen character," Amell said of his sidekick who will soon be suiting up in a full costume for the first time. "That's the more sarcastic element of the classic Oliver character."

Asked whether the flashbacks would return to Lian Yu, where Oliver's story was that he was stranded for five years but from where he escaped at the end of Season Two, Kreisberg didn't say no, but suggested that there were other mysteries to explore in Hong Kong, including what Tommy Merlyn is doing there.

"When you saw her enter the limo at the end of Season Two, we're going to flashback to that moment and play that scene out," Guggenheim said of Thea Queen's trip with Merlyn.

Diggle and Oliver were fighting in the trailer, leading someone to ask about his future with Team Arrow. Ramsey said that he's simply not as invested in the crusade as Oliver is, and that the two view the job of saving the city differently

Felicity Smoak's father will not be Professor Ivo. Instead, her backstory will be explored in an episode that flashes back to her time at M.I.T. and is called "Oracle."