I'm not sure I understand everything in that panel for “The Originals,” but I live-blogged it anyway. I definitely understood the “H20” question for Phoebe Tonkin.
But anywho…
When last we left Oliver Queen and “Arrow,” the Flashback Oliver had awakened in Hong Kong, Slade was in a SuperMax prison after Felicity and Oliver flirted their way into stopping him and Thea was leaving town.
Let's see what Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim and the “Arrow” cast have to say about what's in store for Season 3…
Click through for all of the Ballroom 20 excitement…
5:36 p.m. We're promised we're going to leave her more informed and more excited than we were before.
5:38 p.m. Woo. Season 3 sneak peak. Boom. Boom. Boom. This is all from last year so far. Deathstroke. Poor Moira. Etc. “A man cannot live by too names,” Oliver is being told by somebody in Hong Kong. Oliver's company is up for bid and… Brandon Routh is a major bidder. “Felicity, would you like to go to dinner with me?” [WOO, says the crowd] Arsenal! More Brandon Routh. Felicity seems to be in some trouble! And the return of “You have failed this city.” Ruh-roh.
5:41 p.m. Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim, John Barrowman, Willa Holland, Greg Berlanti, David Ramseyand Stephen Amell hit the stage. No Emily Bett Rickards today, but she'll be on tomorrow night's WBTV TV Night Panel.
5:43 p.m. “In the beginning of Season 2, we were sort of terrified,” Kreisberg says. They put a lot of pressure on themselves. Kreisberg says that when they did the pilot, they had two things in mind: Sara not being dead and Oliver waking up in Hong Kong. They were glad they were able to get to those points.
5:44 p.m. Kreisberg says that because he's a big “Doctor Who” fan, he knew that John “Captain Jack” Barrowman would understand his character's need to go away and that he would then return. Malcolm will be a regular this season. Marc Guggenheim shows us the cork boards the show has drawn up with the full Season 3 arc, or at least he shows us a picture of the board. The season is mapped out.
5:44 p.m. What was up with the relatively peppy ending to Season 2? “We thought the thing we could do that would really shock people was to give them a happy ending,” Kreisberg says. But this year's theme? At what cost victory. The characters are happy when the season begins, but they won't be happy for long.
5:47 p.m. The moderator praises Amell's social media presence for helping the show. Amell says that promoting the show has always been important to him. “I've waited my entire life for an opportunity like this and to see the way the fans have reacted…” he says. Amell remembers making a promise to the people in this ballroom that the show wasn't going to suck. “It sounds simple, but that's what drives us every day,” he says.
5:48 p.m. “I don't write the show. I let those guys write the show,” Amell says of whether he asked to stretch his acting any in Season 2. But it's obvious he was excited by what he got to do. “When they present themselves, I try to be ready,” Amell says of big dramatic beats in the second season.
5:50 p.m. Willa Holland and Colton Haynes hit it off immediately and they had to do a kissing scene on one of the first days and the director asked them for more kissing. “She has amazing breath,” Hayes says. “All I can say is that I've been hitting the gym a little bit,” Holland says of whether it's been “like father/like daughter” for Thea this season. “The Thea that you guys saw in Season 1 and Season 2 is not the girl coming back in Season 3,” she teases.
5:52 p.m. “Daddy Diggle,” says David Ramsay of what's coming up for his character. He promises a lot of tension as the stakes get higher for the character. “It was just a great story point to make Diggle a father and I think the stakes have gotten a lot higher,” Ramsay says.
5:54 p.m. Kudos to the moderator for pushing “Olicity” discussion back and teasing the crowd.
5:54 p.m. What is Malcolm Merlin up to now? The producers have let Barrowman do a bunch of stuff over in London at the start of the season and, as a result, he hasn't read anything yet for his character. He enjoys that side of episodic TV, not knowing what's coming until the last second. “It's more spontaneous that way,” he says.
5:55 p.m. What was up with Quentin Lance and the chest pains last season? “I appear to be on this panel, so what do you think?” Blackthorne says. And he was wearing a Captain's hat in one of the clips we saw. Is there anything chance Quentin will get to work with the CSIs of Central City… Hint… Hint…
5:57 p.m. Episode 108 of “The Flash” and 308 of “Arrow” will be a two-hour crossover event. “Everyone will get a little taste of each other,” Kreisberg says. They're excited to let the things from one show ripple into the other show. “I want to work with Jesse Martin. I like Jesse Martin,” Amell says, before he's prompted to mention Robbie Amell as well. “I want to do a sandwich scene with both of them,” Barrowman says. Oh and Felicity's gonna go to Central City and “The Flash” for Episode 4.
5:59 p.m. How will they keep all of the couples straight? And who does Stephen think Oliver… “No way,” Stephen replies.
5:59 p.m. “Season 3 is typically when shows bring in some game-changing cast members,” Kreisberg says, referencing Faith's arrival on “Buffy” and Scott Wolf's addition to “Everwood.” They sat own with DC and they were offered Ray Palmer. That's Brandon Routh's character. They won't mention his resemblance to Superman, but he may have a thing for Felicity.
6:01 p.m. What will they say about Olicity? “They go for Italian,” Marc Guggenheim teases. “We weren't trying to fake anybody out with Oliver's confession to her at the end of the year last year, so we'll deal with that directly this year,” Berlanti says, adding that their feelings are genuine. “This year they just go out on a date and… yeah…” Amell teases, but adds that the date goes “horribly.”
6:02 p.m. “It's really cool having the second nicest suit on the show now,” Amell cracks, regarding Haynes' Arsenal suit. Amell thinks that the mentor-student relationship is going to bring out a lighter side of Oliver.
6:05 p.m. “I think that Malcolm is going to want to see how much he can gain control,” Barrowman says, hinting that Malcolm is going to want to try to use the emotional side to control Thea. Remember, though, that he hasn't actually read anything yet. “For me, as John, as the fan, as the guy who has the DC encyclopedia lying next to his dining room table, I'm really looking forward to the conflict,” Barrowman says.
6:06 p.m. Time to talk about the Hong Kong Twist: Will we be done with the Island? “Not necessarily, because when the show began, he was on the Island,” Kreisberg reminds us. He says they always had the plan and they'd been planting hints about things happening in Hong Kong. Tommy Merlyn will be returning in some context. Stephen is happy not be returning to “The Island” this season, the forest outside of Vancouver.
6:09 p.m. How long until we see Thea and Roy back together in a scene? “No comment,” Holland says. Guggenheim says we're going to see the rest of Thea and Malcolm in the back of the limo, the scene that we only saw a bit of in the finale.
6:10 p.m. Ramsay jokes about how if he decides to leave Team Arrow, he could just join the Suicide Squad. “I think Diggle's heart is here. He's just as invested in this crusade as Oliver is,” Ramsay says. He teases that Diggle wouldn't *deliberately* leave the team.
6:10 p.m. Kreisberg doesn't like the secret identity side of superhero stories. He says that the show gets easier to write with each person they let find out. “For us, it's much more interesting when people know and they can have conversations,” Kreisberg says. He teases that we're going to be excited about Laurel's journey this season, which hinges on what she knows.
6:12 p.m. Will there be any unusual pairings this season? Kreisberg references Diggle/Thea scenes from last season as a different pairing from last season. They always enjoy doing that.
6:13 p.m. They're each asked to give their favorite scene for the person next to them. “I always fast-forward when it gets to Barrowman,” Paul Blackthorne jokes. He says, however, that he has favorite moments of shooting with Barrowman. Barrowman hints that his favorite Willa scene was the scene last season when she shot him, but he also likes scenes where Willa has some passion and intensity. “This is actually really difficult because Stephen's in basically every scene,” Holland says. But she remembers the scene where Oliver complains that the Kardashians get more attention than he does. Amell liked the last scene between Haynes and Holland in the finale last year. I'm not actually sure what Ramsay scene Haynes liked. Ramsay liked the scene where Blackthorne thought he had the opportunity to be with his wife again. In a cute moment, the cast leads back and forth, each putting their head on the shoulder next to them.
6:19 p.m. Susanna Thompson gets a shout-out. “I miss my mommy,” Holland says.
6:20 p.m. How can they top The Undertaking and the battle from last season? “Yeah, we have some ideas,” Kreisberg says.
6:21 p.m. Audience questions! First one: Who are superheroes they want to see get their own shows, or appear on theirs? Kreisberg hails Geoff Johns for his support. He's happy with the characters they're getting and says they haven't had many asks that they haven't received.
6:22 p.m. A kid asks Amell to do the intro to the show. And he does, at least until he starts forgetting the words that changed in the second season. He recovers and even closes with a spirited “Previous on 'Arrow'…”
6:23 p.m. If they were stranded on The Island, who would they want to be with them? Ramsay picks Stephen, leading to a “Not-so-Straight Arrow” joke. Colton chooses Thea. Barrowman chooses James McAvoy for some reason. “And if it was a girl?” he's asked. “No. Only to cook for us,” Barrowman says, allegedly in character as Malcolm. Willa chooses Barrowman for “pure entertainment.” “All I know si that the one person I would not want to be an island with is John Barrowman,” Blackthorne says. His actual choice? Nyssa al Ghul.
6:27 p.m. Amell says that he is actually good at archery and insists that he would beat Katniss in an archery duel. Blackthorne agrees.
6:28 p.m. Last question: Are we going to learn more about Felicity's backstory? Kreisberg says that, indeed, we're going to flashback to Felicity and her time at MIT. The title of that episode is “Oracle”… The crowd is pleased. But Ivo is NOT her father. Guggenheim is very pleased with the number of DC characters they've been able to use on the show. Berlanti thanks all of us, calling it a fan-driven show. He's excited by the conversation that happens among fans, saying that that discussion has informed some of their creative choices.
That's all folks. I'll be back to live-blogging tomorrow…