Green Arrow and the Canaries: Katherine McNamara & More Respond

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On Friday, Arrowverse fans learned that Green Arrow and the Canaries would not be moving forward at The CW (with no official word on if streaming service HBO Max could be a viable alternative as it may be for The 100 spinoff pilot). Now, series co-star Katherine McNamara pilot writers Beth Schwartz and Marc Guggenheim are offering their thoughts on the decision via social media.

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Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2020 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

First, here's a look back at what McNamara posted around the time the news was officially announced, followed by an Instagram post from today where McNamara thanks the fans, her co-stars, friends, and more who've helped her along the way as she developed Mia into a well-rounded character who viewers could connect with. Accompanying that, a brief, heartfelt tweet from Schwartz expressing her love and appreciation for all those involved in the project.

 

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A post shared by Katherine McNamara (@kat.mcnamara)

In his first post, Guggenheim co-signs a sentiment of love and appreciation for McNamara, Katie Cassidy, and Juliana Harkavy's hard work and dedication to the Arrowverse over the years. Following that, Guggenheim clarified that the decision to not move ahead with the series "was made back during the start of the pandemic" though the announcement wasn't made until Friday- with Guggenheim believing that it was the pandemic that might have been the "deciding factor":

In September 2019, The CW announced it was moving forward with another Emerald Archer spinoff (remember The Flash?), focusing on McNamara's Mia Queen, as well as Canaries Laurel Lance (Cassidy) and Dinah Drake (Harkavy). Together, they form Green Arrow and the Canaries. Before the Stephen Amell-fronted Arrow shuffled off the network's programming mortal coil, a backdoor pilot titled "Green Arrow and the Canaries" aired as a regular-season episode. Set in Star City in 2040, the episode finds Mia with everything she could have ever wanted. But when Laurel and Dinah suddenly show up in her life again, things took a shocking turn, and her "perfect world" would never be the same again. Written by Arrow showrunner Schwartz and co-creator/executive producer Guggenheim, executive producer Jill Blankenship, and co-executive producer Oscar Balderrama, the episode was directed by Tara Miele. Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros Television are producing the project.

In April 2020, Schwartz spoke to ET about the pilot and revealed one of the subjects (and characters) she wants to focus on should a series order happen: "As we're still working on a spinoff and we're talking about those things is, Dinah Drake's background [is something I'd like to focus on]. We had so many stories about her family and what her life was like before. We had the great story with her and [her late boyfriend] Vinny, but there was so much more to her character, which is why, in the backdoor pilot, she talks about getting married [young] and she's a singer. There were all these things [about her we didn't know]. And Laurel's like, 'Who are you?' Because it was kind of the joke that we had amongst ourselves because we've talked about all these stories and we just didn't have a chance to get them out."

About Ray Flook

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.