'Arrow' season 3 spoilers: Ra's al Ghul to challenge Green Arrow

Spoilers have described new friends and enemies headed Oliver Queen's way in the CW's "Arrow." The Green Arrow, played by actor Stephen Amell, won't be taking a certain villain -Ra's al Ghul -lightly.

The name may be familiar to DC Comics fans. Ra's al Ghul is Batman's antagonist in the Christopher Nolan "Batman Trilogy" with Christian Bale. Ra's al Ghul was played by Liam Neeson.

Neeson previously gave a glimpse of who the villain is in the movie and "Arrow" producers are working hard to find the perfect actor to play the villain in the show. Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg described Ra's al Ghul as a villain who will surely give Oliver a hard time.

In a recent interview with Comic Book Resources, Kreisberg shared what Ra's al Ghul will be like as a villain in the third season of "Arrow" as well as how the villain is different from Slade Wilson and Malcolm Merlyn.

Kreisber said that including the villain's character is something "we hadn't done before."

"With Malcolm, it was a very specific villain who had a very specific agenda," Kreisberg said. "That was designed where they didn't even necessarily know they were up against each other until the very end."

As for Slade, his main motivation was revenge. Oliver had to choose between Shado and Sara; he chose Sara. Shado was killed by Anthony Ivo.

Kreisberg stated: "For season three, we wanted a new challenge for Oliver. [Ra's] really speaks to the emotional theme of the season, which is, 'Can I be both the Arrow and Oliver Queen at the same time?' The villain says to Oliver, 'The reason you're not able to fully be the Arrow and do the things you should be doing is because you're still holding on to Oliver Queen. I've left my identity behind to fully commit to my cause. If you did that, you could rise as high as I am.' Knowing that was emotionally what we wanted to do, that was how we landed on [Ra's]."

David Ramsey, who plays John Diggle, also shared  about Ra's al Ghul creating a darker path for the show's third season.

"The big heavy is someone who will bring a lot of darkness -- even more so than Barrowman's Merlyn or Manu's Slade," Ramsey said. "I think darkness is part of the overall tone of the show. We've talked about some more humor coming in, in terms of what Oliver does.

"He'll start matching that more into the Green Arrow of the comics who's more humorous and quirky. But I don't think it changes the way the show is dark and brooding."

Here is the teaser for "Arrow" season three.