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Arrow spinoff featuring Canaries and new Green Arrow set up at CW as backdoor pilot

Katherine McNamara as Mia Smoak in Arrow
Katherine McNamara will star in an Arrowverse spinoff in which she will continue to play Mia Smoak/Green Arrow. Pic credit: The CW

The CW has announced plans for its first post-Arrow spinoff and it features a trio of familiar faces. The spinoff will center on Katherine McNamara’s Mia Smoak, aka Green Arrow, and two of the Canaries, Katie Cassidy’s Laurel Lance and Juliana Harkavy’s Dinah Drake.

The three women are currently regulars on Arrow, so the project will start as a backdoor pilot during an episode of that show’s eighth and final season, according to Deadline. Arrowverse stalwarts Beth Schwartz, Marc Guggenheim, Jill Blankenship, and Oscar Balderrama will write the episode.

The CW’s president Mark Pedowitz announced in August that, following the end of flashship series Arrow, the network was planning to add another DC TV series to its roster for the 2020-21 season. At the time, though, Pedowitz was tight-lipped about what the new show could be.

Fans speculated that the flashforwards to Star City 2040 could be one spinoff possibility. The flashforwards focus on McNamara’s character along with Ben Lewis’ William Clayton and Joseph David-Jones’ Connor Hawke.

Many fans also championed to a Birds of Prey spinoff featuring a Canary team-up. And hopes were running higher after news came out that Katie Cassidy said she’d pitched the show.

Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake/Black Canary and Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance/Black Siren on Arrow
Juliana Harkavy and Katie Cassidy will co-star as the Canaries in the new Arrowverse spinoff. Their characters previously teamed up in a Canary-centric Arrow episode. Pic credit: The CW

Instead, it seems that the network is going with a hybrid of the two ideas. McNamara’s involvement requires that the show take place in a future Star City. Cassidy and Harkavy are a part of Arrow’s main timeline but have also appeared in the flashforwards so they are both already established as part of the future timeline.

In addition, Cassidy’s and Harkavy’s characters have already teamed up, along with Caity Lotz’s Sara Lance/White Canary, in a Canary-centric episode in Arrow’s seventh season entitled “Lost Canary.”

McNamara reacted to the good news on Twitter with a post celebrating the all-female spinoff.

Arrow’s eighth and final season will air on Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW. The season premieres on October 15.

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