By: Dave Clark
Here are some of the highlights from the Arrow and The Flash panels from PaleyFest 2015!
Arrow:
Moderator: Aisha Tyler
Panel: Greg Berlanti, John Barrowman, Willa Holland, Colton Haynes, Emily Bett Rickards, Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, Paul Blackthorne, David Ramsey, Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim
When asked about the flashbacks and the tone of Season 3 being darker than anything we’ve seen yet, Amell says “its only going to get worse before it gets better.”
As Tyler began talking about all the secrets in the show, Blackthorne joked a bit about being the only person in Oliver’s life that does NOT know he’s The Arrow. Blackthorne talking about finding out that Sara had been killed and that Laurel had been keeping it from him. “I’ve lost one daughter and then I’ve lost the trust of another.” Then he made a joke about being left out from Team Arrow, “And since I have no friends in Starling City I’ve decided to go hang with Detective West in Central City.”
“The fact that he’s in peril with his partner Oliver Queen, as a soldier, that’s what he signed up for.” Ramsey talking about the struggle of being a father and a crimefighter and maybe holding back from the peril.
In talking about Thea and Roy and their potential relationships, Haynes mentioned that they’ll probably both be very close to each other…after Holland licked Haynes’ face.
Barrowman was asked about Merlyn’s relationship with Thea and the brutality and abuse he’s shown to her and just not the prototypical father/daughter situation, “Without giving anything away, just keep watching. He loves her. He loves her.”
With Oliver having so many enemies, Tyler asked about Felicity getting her own nemesis, Kreisberg revealed she does on The Flash in the form of The Walking Dead’s Emily Kinney.
First question from the fans, “This is for the cast, what will season four be like?” Kreisberg answered, “we can say that after the end of season three nothing will be the same.”
In my opinion, John Barrowman stole the show on the panel.
“It’s great being able to do things other than crying or being lied to,” Holland when asked by a fan about getting to be a kick ass character now instead of the “wet blanket” her character had been up to that point.
A fan asked about Merlyn getting a possible love interest and Kreisberg joked about “not spoiling the romance between Merlyn and Felicity’s mother” which shocked a few members of the cast.
The Flash:
Moderator: Aisha Tyler
Panel: Andrew Kreisberg, Rick Cosnett, Candice Patton, Jesse L. Martin, Grant Gustin, Tom Cavanagh, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Greg Berlanti
“Harrison Wells is just a guy who wants to get home. I think we can relate to that. If a couple of people have to shuffle off the mortal coil, so be it.” Cavanagh when asked why his character is so evil.
“Eddie has an amazing arc over the season, you guys are gonna be so surprised with what happens. But ya know he finally finds out about the metahumans but then of course he still doesn’t know about Barry.” Cosnett when asked about his character finding out about the metahumans and his reaction to it all.
A lot of the questions are asking about things the cast can’t really talk about yet so all their answers were extremely vague. They had to dance around a lot of things, especially Cavanagh and Cosnett.
When Iris finds out about Barry being The Flash, Patton said, “its gonna be a huge betrayal that these two men in her life had been lying to her this whole time.”
We’re gonna learn some of the West family backstory dealing with Iris’ mother and more.
Are we working towards other people at S.T.A.R. Labs developing powers or becoming metahumans? “The focus is on Barry at the moment. Whether that’s down the line for us…..maybe later.” Valdez responded.
When asked who’s feeding the metahumans in the prison. Cavanagh, and Gustin pointed to Valdes, while Valdes pointed towards Cavanagh and Gustin. Apparently that’s going to be answered in an upcoming episode though. Also they’re going to deal with the morality of keeping people in S.T.A.R. Labs.
Just like the Arrow cast, this cast all get along and seem to have great chemistry and a lot of fun together. Gustin did flat out say he does not want a musical episode, but would love to work singing into the episodes if it makes sense, like the karaoke scene.
Asked about doing a huge pivotal storyline like Crisis on Infinite Earths Kreisberg answered, “there’s a very huge Flash story that we’re going to tackle.”
Introducing characters like Wally or Bart…silence, “That’s our hope.” was all that Berlanti would say.
Atomic Geekdom would like to thank The Paley Center for Media for the opportunity and support. Please check out their website at www.paleycenter.org or on Twitter at @paleycenter. Live streaming and to watch playback of the panels can be found at https://screen.yahoo.com/.