STEPHEN AMELL ON OLIVER REUNITING WITH MALCOLM, THE RETURN OF NYSSA AND THE DEBUT OF RA'S AL GHUL 

Arrow: Stephen Amell on Oliver Reuniting with Malcolm, the Return of Nyssa and the Debut of Ra\'s al Ghul

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The League of Assassins\' presence continues to be felt in Season 3.

The League of Assassins has been an important element on Arrow for quite some time, as we’ve gotten to know more members – or, in some cases, former members.

In this week’s episode, “The Magician,” the League will once more come into play in a big way, as Nyssa al Ghul (Katrina Law) returns to Starling City, in the wake of the death of her former lover, Sara Lance. Meanwhile, former League member Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) is also coming back to Starling City, where an inevitable reunion with his enemy, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), will occur.

Of course, on top of that, we\'re also going to soon meet the infamous Ra’s al Ghul himself, played by Matt Nable.

Amell recently discussed Oliver’s reunion with Malcolm, the return of Nyssa and what we might expect when Ra’s al Ghul makes his entrance.

Question: Can you tease anything about Oliver’s reunion with Malcolm?

Stephen Amell: We had 200 extras there. That was exciting. It is a costumeless, weaponless, fisticuffless exchange and concurrently is probably the most charged exchange that we\'ve had on the show. We shot it on our 50th episode, which is our fourth episode this year and for me, personally, I love these things on TV when something is set up and then you let it lay for a while. In our case we’re talking about letting it lie for 27 episodes between the Season 1 finale and episode four of Season 3. So just playing scenes also with John is a growing exercise for me as an actor, because there’s so many things that he does and chances that he will take that I feel they’re expanding my character and I\'m feeling the repercussions of them, personally, on a professional, technical level in the aftermath of episode four. I’m bringing them into scenes as we move through the season.

Katrina Law as Nyssa al Ghul and Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen in Arrow.

Question: What sort of wild card presence will Nyssa bring, in the midst of trying to solve Sara’s murder?

Amell: She’s a ticking time bomb. She leaves [episode] four as a ticking time bomb and Oliver leaves with a whole host of new enemies. He feels very much as though it’s his responsibility to bring whoever did this to justice. I will say that of all of the convoluted, devious plans that we’ve ever had on the show, the “Who killed Canary?” device is right at the top.

Question: Marc [Guggenheim] has said that with Sara dead, he sees Nyssa as being able to fulfill that role as a very strong, physical, female presence on the show.

Question: But your characters don’t exactly see eye to eye. How do you think they can or cannot cooperate?

Amell: There’s an opportunity for them to work in consort in episode four, but Oliver’s methods and Nyssa’s methods don’t match up. She’s the shoot them all, figure it out afterwards [type]. And Oliver’s like, “I used to be that way but I’m not anymore.” So that creates conflict for them. But Katrina has been excellent this year. We’ve seen her a few times now and it\'s always a treat. I think that she has fleshed out the Nyssa character. Actually, I think it’s been probably helpful for Matt, who’s playing her father. Having such a strong, fleshed out character as his daughter has probably given him a really nice signpost for how to play Ra’s.

Amell: He’s great. I had my first opportunity to work with him recently and he’s wonderful. He’s really good. The character has a very worldly feel without being… I wouldn’t call it exotic at all. When I saw the reveal of his wardrobe at Comic-Con, I thought somewhat exotic, but he grounds it and he puts it into our world. I’m very excited for his development on the show.

Amell: I haven’t. But we meet him on the show relatively soon.

Question: What are you most excited for people to see this season?

Amell:If you’re a fan of comics, you’re really going to enjoy the reveal of Ra’s al Ghul. And I mean, like, the first frames of seeing him. That’s going to be pretty cool. It’s going to create a lot of chatter.

Arrow: "The Magician", airs Wednesday, October 29th at 8:00pm ET/PT on the CW.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIGN, IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman.

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