Posted in: CW, TV | Tagged: arrow, arrowverse

Arrow: Katie Cassidy on Learning Laurel Lance Would Be in The Grave

Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum: Katie Cassidy (Arrow) discusses when she learned that Laurel Lance/Black Canary would be killed off.

Katie Cassidy would go on to have an impactful run across the Arrowverse in so many ways – but there was no way she would know that heading into April 6, 2016. That was when The CW's Arrow Season 4 Episode 18 ""Eleven-Fifty-Nine" (directed by Rob Hardy and written by Marc Guggenheim & Keto Shimizu) aired, and the viewers learned which character's fate will end in the grave that was teased during the Season 4 opener – Cassidy's Laurel Lance, aka Black Canary, killed at the hands of Neal McDonough's Damien Darhk. As fans know, Cassidy would return as Laurel's Earth-X variant Black Siren in The Flash and eventually make her way back to Arrow in the role of Earth-2's Laurel Lance (and came close to fronting a "Green Arrow and the Canaries" spinoff series). Speaking with Michael Rosenbaum during the latest edition of the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast (beginning at around the 41:00 mark in the video above), Cassidy shared some personal details on when she learned that Laurel was going to be killed and her reaction to the news.

Rooming with The Flash star Danielle Panabaker at the time, Cassidy shared how Panabaker would try to guess who would end up being in the grave – and how Cassidy would tell her that she wasn't worried. Heading into New York Comic Con (NYCC) – probably not the best time to drop news that an actor's character was being killed off – Arrow showrunners Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle put the word out to the cast that they wanted to "catch up" on Monday. That didn't sit well with Cassidy. "And for whatever reason, my stomach just dropped. I immediately text Marc Guggenheim, who I adore, 'I'm fired, aren't I?' I was like, 'Marc, I have a sick feeling in my stomach, please don't make me wait the weekend. Please, can we get on a call tomorrow?' He said, 'Wow, you're really intuitive. I'll call you tomorrow.;" Cassidy revealed.

That day, the call happened – with Guggenheim and Arrowverse EPs Greg Belanti and Andrew Kreisberg breaking the news to Cassidy while also laying out where the story would go. "Marc said, 'Listen, unfortunately I have to tell you you're the one that's in the grave," Cassidy shared, adding that she went from being "angry at first" and then "emotional" as the reality of it set in. In fact, she revealed that the "only anger moment" she had during group call was when she responded at one point, "I just have to say I feel like I've always been given the short end of the stick." Cassidy would end the call, giving herself the moment to let the emotions hit before Arrow star Stephen Amell checked in to see how she was holding up.

That's just one example of the great back-and-forths Rosenbaum and Cassidy have over the course of the interview. In addition, Cassidy shared why she believed she was fired and her character killed off ("I have theories…"), what it was like tackling New York Comic Con when she knew that her character would be written off, and getting the call from Guggenheim about returning to the show. "I think they did a great job in writing for me, quite frankly, and I got a lot to play with. So for that I'm grateful," shared, reflecting on how things would eventually play out. "Quite frankly, them killing me off… took every other series regular and… sends these other characters spiraling in different directions and reacting. It's storytelling, and I don't take it personally."

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